Health Policy Issues and Health Programmes in ... - Amazon S3

Specific Health Policy and Programme IssuesSpecific Health Policy andProgramme IssuesSummary of ProceedingsThe following health policy and programme issues, specific to Uttaranchal,are the result of proceedings of the workshop on Health Policy and HealthProgrammes in Uttaranchal held on 9–10 May 2002 in Mussorie. The issuesare based on the papers presented, the remarks of chairpersons anddiscussants, and observations and group reports by the participants.Session 1National Health Programmes and EpidemiologicalSurveillancelllllIn spite of a huge primary health care network in Uttaranchal, as in Indiain general, more than half of the disease burden is caused bycommunicable, maternal, and nutritional disorders—most of which arepreventable or easily managed.Due to significant changes in life-styles and age structures of thepopulation, the disease burden caused by life-style and degenerativediseases is on the increase. There are also emerging diseases such as HIV/AIDS.Public health as a special discipline should be promoted, the role ofpublic health experts should be recognized, and career structures shouldbe created to promote primary health care.There are about 23 national health programmes in the country. Some ofthem are relevant to all states and others are state-or locale-specific.Priorities among programmes should be determined usingepidemiological data.Currently, the health programmes call for inter-sectoral and integratedapproaches, particularly for vector-borne diseases; however, there couldbe improvement in implementation. For instance, measures related tosanitation for the control of vector breeding and the use of insecticides bythe agriculture department are some of the important aspects that need tobe taken into consideration when implementing the malaria controlprogramme.243