Communicable and Non- Communicable Diseases in India

Although the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) burden has grown, India still does not have sufficiently detailed data on NCDs for research and policy purposes.

• In 2017, as a part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Risk Factors, and Injuries (GBD) Study, India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative Collaborators produced an analysis of state variations in epidemiological transition levels (ETL) during 1990–2016.
• India GBD Collaborators found that leading cardiovascular diseases - ischaemic heart disease and stroke—made the largest contribution to the total burden of mortality in India in 2016, at 28.1% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 26.5–29.1).
• Furthermore, the contribution of cardiovascular diseases to mortality increased by 34.3% (26.6–43.7) from 1990 to 2016, which is not surprising given rapid population ageing and significantly increasing levels of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases - high systolic blood pressure, air pollution, high total cholesterol, high fasting plasma glucose, and high body-mass index—during that period.
• Prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and their share of mortality are predictably higher in the high and higher-middle ETL-level states of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases, also known as infectious diseases or transmissible diseases, are illnesses that result from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic (capable of causing disease) biological agents in an individual human or other animal host. Infections may range in severity from asymptomatic (without symptoms) to severe and fatal. The term infection does not have the same meaning as infectious disease because some infections do not cause illness in a host.

• Infections spread through -
  • Physical contact with an infected person, such as through touch (staphylococcus), sexual intercourse (gonorrhea, HIV), faecal/oral transmission (hepatitis A), or droplets (influenza, TB);
  • Contact with a contaminated surface or object (Norwalk virus), food (salmonella, E. coli), blood (HIV, hepatitis B), or water (cholera);
  • Bites from insects or animals capable of transmitting the disease (mosquito: malaria and yellow fever; flea: plague); and
  • Also travels through the air, such as tuberculosis or measles.

Non-Communicable Diseases

Non-communicable diseases are diseases of long duration and generally slow progression. The four major types of non-communicable diseases are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.

Challenges in the field of NCDs in India

• Neglect of Rural Population
• Emphasis on Culture Method
• Inadequate Outlay for Health
• Shortage of Medical Personnel
• Inadequate Medical Researches
• Expensive Health Service