Government mulling special 'days' for diseases to spread awareness

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to designate special 'days' for various diseases to promote awareness and enable engagement with the public on their preventive and curative aspects, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said today.

"A specific day in a year will be dedicated to awareness- building on a particular disease. For instance, November 7 will be observed as National Cancer Awareness Day, apart from February 4, which is already marked as World Cancer Day.

"We will use such occasions to communicate with citizens on how to deal with that disease at the prevention and curative levels, the importance of timely check-ups and other matters," Vardhan said.

Thus, the government is planning to mark special days for diabetes, anaemia, hypertension, blindness, deafness, malnutrition, obesity, mental conditions and issues related to infant and maternal mortality, a Health Ministry release said here.

Vardhan said that social mobilisation was essential for making public health work and advised NGOs to dedicate some of their energies towards training neighbourhoods in how to administer Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

"Half the number of fatalities in heart attack cases is caused by delayed transportation to hospital... Many of these deaths can be avoided by timely CPR. For this, I urge DMA, RWAs and like-minded groups to conduct camps to train people in such techniques," he said.