NEW DELHI: India is set to introduce indigenous
testing products for diabetes by
the year-end, bringing down costs by 90 per cent. The Indian Council for
Medical Research (ICMR) is in the final stages of testing products including
strips and readers for diabetes.
Speaking on the need for India to have affordable indigenous
technologies, health minister Ghulam Nabi
Azad said on Friday, "I have given ICMR a deadline of the end of
the year to bring indigenously developed testing strips for diabetes."
ICMR director general Dr VM Katoch said the cost of a
diabetes testing strip was between Rs 15-30 since the products were all
patented. ICMR aims to bring down the cost to Rs 3-5.
Dr Katoch added, "A dozen projects have been initiated
while four are in a very advanced stage. We are hopeful that we will be able to
come out with some products by December."
India is home to 62 million diabetics, second only to China
which has 92.3 million diabetics. By 2030, India's diabetes numbers are
expected to cross the 100 million mark according to a 2012 report by
International Diabetes Federation. More worryingly, WHO projects that in the
next 10 years, deaths by diabetes will increase by 35%.
The economic burden due to diabetes in India is among the
highest in the world. As per WHO estimates, mortality from diabetes, heart disease
and stroke cost
about $210 billion in India in 2005. Much of the heart disease and stroke in
these estimates were linked to diabetes. Diabetes, heart disease and stroke
together will cost about $333.6 billion over the next 10 years in India alone,
estimates WHO.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas
does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the
insulin it produces. The disease exposes a person to heart attack, stroke,
amputations, nerve damage, blindness and
kidney disease.
Work on diagnostic tests for TB, dengue, kalazar,
leptospirosis and other infections that are indigenously produced is also
underway.
Graham
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