Cancer cases grow by 33% since 2005
Cancer cases around the world increased by a colossal 33% between 2005 and 2015, according to a new report from the University of Washington in the United States. The report, which relied on vital registration system data, cancer registry incidence data and verbal autopsy data, estimated the presence of 17.5 million cancer cases worldwide and 8.7 million cancer deaths in 2015.
The increase in cancer cases over the past decade has mostly been due to an ageing population as well as changes in age-specific cancer rates. Cancer has become the second leading cause of death worldwide. Globally, the odds of developing cancer during a lifetime were one in three for men and one in four for women.
Prostrate cancer was the most common form of cancer for men at about 1.6 million cases and tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer were the leading killers among cancer deaths for men. Breast cancer was the most common cancer for women at 2.4 million cases, also causing the most number of cancer deaths. The most common childhood cancers were leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and brain and nervous system cancers.
IFC to invest $200-300 in Indian healthcare
The World Bank’s private lending arm International Finance Corporation is considering investing $200-300 million in healthcare, pharmaceuticals and medical devices in India over the next one year, according to news agency reports. The IFC aims to get a profit on its investment while making sure it has a developmental impact on the country it is investing in, the IFC’s chief investment officer, for global health Chris McCahan said.
The IFC already has investments of about $400 million in India having put money into large healthcare groups like Apollo, Max Healthcare, Fortis Healthcare and a number of pharmaceutical companies. The IFC is looking to park its money with pharmaceutical companies that can make low cost drugs – particularly generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients or APIs.
McCahan said that the international funding organisation was in talks with many healthcare was in talks with many different healthcare companies in India but would announce details when discussions reached a “serious stage”.
National nutrition survey gets underway
The Indian government, assisted by UNICEF, is conducting the first ever survey to measure nutrition levels of children across the country by collecting data to quantify deficiencies of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals and also record worm infestations among children.
A total of 1,20,000 children in the age group of 0-19 years are being surveyed across the country through systematic random sampling as part of the exercise. The survey has been completed in seven states and will be concluded in another five states by the end of this year, said UNICEF and the findings of the exercise will start coming in early next year. All the states of the country are expected to have been covered by the survey by the end of 2017.
The Indian government has only one healthcare intervention currently to tackle malnutrition and that is providing folic acid and iron supplements to counter anemia. But, as UNICEF’s nutrition specialist Jee Hyun Rah explained, anaemia is caused not only by iron deficiency, but also due to deficiencies of Vitamin A , zinc and even protein deficiency. The lack of other interventions for better nutrition, UNICEF claims, is because we do not know where the population stands in terms of mineral and vitamin requirements.
The survey will also record for over-nutrition, which causes obesity and diabetes, as well as the association between lack of nourishment and its impact on school readiness, cognitive development and educational outcomes.
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