Develop new technologies to treat diseases: Azad
By IANSMonday, November 15, 2010
NEW DELHI - Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Monday urged the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to intensify research to develop new technologies aimed at tackling diseases.
Addressing scientists here during the inauguration of the centenary celebrations of ICMR, a premier medical research agency, Azad said: India cannot wait indefinitely for development of new technologies for health that are urgently required for tackling various diseases.”
He stressed the need to develop affordable diagnostic methods for diabetes.
“I have personally assigned them (ICMR scientists) to coordinate efforts on affordable diagnostic methods for diabetes,” he said a day after World Diabetes Day was observed Sunday.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, there are about 220 million diabetes patients worldwide. Nearly 50.9 million of them are in India. Around nine percent of the country’s population is expected to be affected by the disease by 2030.
Azad urged the scientists to work on H1N1 vaccines and diagnostics, apart from other vector borne diseases.
