India must improve public health care to achieve UN goals: WHO

Geneva: India and many other Southeast Asian countries need to improve their record on public health care, the WHO said on Wednesday as it warned that the world will fall short in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on many indicators by the end of this year. “Its been incredible progress in the past 25 years particularly in the fight against the epidemics of HIV, TB and malaria,” said Ties Boerma, Director, Health Statistics and Information System, World Health Organization (WHO) while releasing the World Health Statistics 2015 report. [caption id=“attachment_2242636” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] United Nations. Reuters.[/caption] Speaking of India’s slow progress, Boerma said, “There is less progress for family planning, ante- natal care indicators. It is a mixed picture. It is a progress picture but not as spectacular as in western Pacific”. “One particular area is measles immunisation where India has lagged behind in achieving good coverage and that hopefully will change in the future,” said Colin Mathers, Coordinator, Department of Mortality & Burden of Disease, WHO. Measles immunization coverage among one-year-olds was 74 per cent in India in 2013 which is one of the lowest in the Southeast Asian region. India has seen only a 58 per cent reduction in under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2013, again one of the lowest reductions in the region, ahead only of North Korea, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Mathers said. There is a 21 per cent unmet need for family planning and only a 22 per cent reduction in proportion to population in access to improved sanitation in India between 1990 and 2012, as per MDG targets. Some of the indicators where India has met the MDG targets or is on track are reduction in HIV incidence between 2001 and 2013 (57 per cent), mortality rate for tuberculosis between1990 and 2013 (50 per cent), increase in access to safe drinking water between 1990 and 2012 (77 per cent), he said. The World Health Statistics report is released annually ahead of the World Health Assembly which is due to begin on May 18 in Geneva. PTI