UT most prone to cancer, yet to make it notifiable disease

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

In view of Chandigarh reporting the highest incidence of cancer in the country, the PGI had, nearly six months ago, urged the UT Administration to make cancer a notifiable disease. However, the authorities are oblivious of it. Home-cum-Health Secretary Anurag Aggarwal expressed ignorance. “I do not know about it. Please talk to the Director, Health Service (DHS), UT,” he told The Tribune, adding that he was aware that cancer cases were rising constantly in the city. The DHS, Dr Rakesh Kashyap, said he was not aware about the PGI proposal.

Dr JS Thakur, Professor of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGI, said the PGI had, during a meeting with officials of the Health Department in 2016, proposed to the UT Administration that in view of the highest incidence of cancer in the city, the disease be notified. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of the then DHS, Dr Vanita Gupta. Dr Thakur added that later, they were informed that the process was on and cancer would soon be declared a notifiable disease in the UT.

He said, “To facilitate prevention, better planning of treatment, policies and research on cancer, notifying cancer can go a long way.”

Dr Thakur added, “If cancer is made notifiable, like in other states, every case will have to be reported and no cases can be left uncared for. This ensures that every patient is getting timely treatment, which in turn, saves the lives of a large number of cancer patients.”

Dismal figures

A study conducted by the PGI and Tata Memorial Institute, the report of which was released in 2016, had revealed that Chandigarh was most prone to cancer and the incidence rate of the disease was higher in the city than the national average. Against the national cancer incidence rate of 97.4 per 1 lakh in females and 92.4 per 1 lakh in males, the city’s 105 women in every 1 lakh and 93.4 men in every 1 lakh population are suffering from the dreaded disease.

States that have notified cancer

Though Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and West Bengal have a lower incidence of cancer, they have notified it. Chandigarh has the highest incidence, but is yet to follow suit. 

What is a notifiable disease

A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to the government authorities. The collation of information allows the authorities to monitor the disease, and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. This means that it becomes a binding on all doctors across the state/UT to report to the Health Department or the disease-control committee in case they come across a patient suffering from the disease. The notification is applicable to all industries, the Railways, civil, Army and other Central and state government medical agencies and hospitals, and medical institutions other than state-run medical institutions, including Ayurvedic and Unani.