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India needs more infectious disease experts, says Indian-American doc
Submitted by admin4 on 16 December 2012 - 2:36pm
India News
By Ranjana Narayan, IANS,
New Delhi : Despite infectious diseases claiming over 20 million lives a year, India has just a handful of specialists in the field for its 1.2 billion population, says an Indian American expert pushing for this country to set up a specialist training programme to tackle this grave issue.
The US has 6,500 specialists in infectious diseases (ID) for its over 300 million population, says Navin Shah, specialist in urology and a diplomate of the American Board of Urology.
"India need 15,000 ID specialists for its 1.2 billion people," Shah, who was the co-founder and past president of the American Association Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), told IANS.
India has 50 million ID patients and 40 percent of them die due to the affliction, he said.
Infectious diseases are not just colds and coughs, Shah explained. Septicemia, or infection of the blood, and infections that chemotherapy and organ transplant patients catch are also clubbed under ID as well as tuberculosis (TB), he said.
"In India, 100 tuberculosis patients die every day. The right way is to first take a sputum test and then give the right drugs as per each patient," Shah told IANS in an interview here.
Shah, who had met Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad earlier this week to discuss the training programme, said the Indian government is keen to start it.
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Submitted by admin4 on 16 December 2012 - 2:36pm
India News
By Ranjana Narayan, IANS,
New Delhi : Despite infectious diseases claiming over 20 million lives a year, India has just a handful of specialists in the field for its 1.2 billion population, says an Indian American expert pushing for this country to set up a specialist training programme to tackle this grave issue.
The US has 6,500 specialists in infectious diseases (ID) for its over 300 million population, says Navin Shah, specialist in urology and a diplomate of the American Board of Urology.
"India need 15,000 ID specialists for its 1.2 billion people," Shah, who was the co-founder and past president of the American Association Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), told IANS.
India has 50 million ID patients and 40 percent of them die due to the affliction, he said.
Infectious diseases are not just colds and coughs, Shah explained. Septicemia, or infection of the blood, and infections that chemotherapy and organ transplant patients catch are also clubbed under ID as well as tuberculosis (TB), he said.
"In India, 100 tuberculosis patients die every day. The right way is to first take a sputum test and then give the right drugs as per each patient," Shah told IANS in an interview here.
Shah, who had met Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad earlier this week to discuss the training programme, said the Indian government is keen to start it.
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