Databank of lifestyle diseases

The databank will help in taking policy decisions in the health sector and the programme aims at decentralising the surveillance mechanism in the country. The diseases have been identified and a list prepared in consultation with representatives of the states.

The project, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, is to be monitored by nodal agencies like National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

‘‘In India, we have a surveillance system for communicable diseases, whenever there is an outbreak we could get the data. However, there is very little data on diseases like diabetes and coronary heart disease — according to WHO, India is likely to become their epicentre in the years to come,’’ said an official in NICD.

The pilot project of the programme is likely to be undertaken soon in five states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. ‘‘The areas have been identified and training and operational manuals have been prepared. We are just waiting for a go-ahead from the ministry,’’ the official says.

Surveys would be conducted with scientific precision and would be based on blood samples, questionnaires and physical examination of people. The programme is likely to be a continuous process and repeated after a fixed duration.

The surveillance programme for communicable diseases was initiated in 1997. It included training ‘Rapid Response Teams’ at the district level in 101 districts in states and Union Territories in the country for outbreak response. But this left out most of the growing ‘‘urban ailments.’’