OVERVIEW-
— There are a lot of health problems in communities in
India. Theses problems continue to
be a social and economical burden on the community. Health
problems affect not only individual but
family society as well as whole country also. These health problems have great
impact on health status and development of the country.
COMMON
HEALTH PROBLEMS -
— The common health
problems are grouped as:
— 1. Communicable disease problems
— 2. Non-communicable disease problems
— 3. Nutritional problems
— 4. Environmental sanitation problems
— 5. Medical care problems
— 6. Population problems.
COMMUNICABLE
DISEASE PROBLEMS-
Communicable diseases continue to be a major problem
in India. Some of them affect our community in a major way are
:
— (a) Malaria : Malaria continues to be a major
health problem in India. Although total malaria cases has declined compared to
previous years but still we loss many lives every year to this disease.
— (b) Diarrhoeal diseases : Diarrhoeal diseases
constitute one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality, specially in
children below 5 years of age. Outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases (including
cholera) continue to occur in India due to poor environmental conditions.
— (c) Tuberculosis : Tuberculosis remains a major
community health problem India. The emergence of HIV-TB co-infection and
multidrug resistant TB has increased the severity and magnitude of the disease.
— (d) Leprosy: Leprosy is another important
public health problem in India. During the year 2018-2019, total of 120334
cases new cases were detected in India. All the States and Union Territories
report cases of leprosy
— (e) ARI: Acute respiratory infections are one
of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in children below 5 years of
age. Pneumonia , tonsillitis, influenza and bronchiolitis are main infections
which affect children in India.
— (f) Measles: Measles and rubella also
contribute to the major causes of mortality and morbidity in children below 5
years of age. Although there are vaccine preventable disease and due to
effective vaccination we are able to control them but in between some cases
appear.
— (g) Others : Meningitis, viral hepatitis, Japanese
encephalitis, dengue fever, enteric fever and helminthic infestations are among the other important communicable
disease problems in India. The tragedy is that most of these diseases can be either
easily prevented or treated with minimum input of resources such as vaccination
or health education.
NON-COMMUNICABLE
DISEASE PROBLEMS-
— India is experiencing a rapid epidemiological
transition with a large and rising burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. Non-commnunicable diseases includes
diabetes mellitus, cancer, stroke, and chronic lung diseases etc. these
disorders have emerged as major public health problems due to an ageing
population and environmentally-driven changes in behaviour.
— Cancer has become an important public health problem
in India with an estimated 7 to 9 lakh cases occurring every year. In India,
tobacco related cancers account for about half the total cancers among men and
20% among women. About one million tobacco related deaths occur each year,
making tobacco related health issues a major public health concern.
— Heart diseases and strok cases are also increasing due
to change in life style and eating habits. Other non communicable diseases such
as accidents oral diseases eye infections cateract etc also have major impact
on our public health infrastructure.
NUTRITIONAL
PROBLEMS-
— From the nutritional point of view, the Indian
community have both types of problems of under nutrition and over nutrition.
The specific nutritional problems in the country are :
— (a) Protein-energy malnutrition : Insufficiency
of food appears to be the chief cause of
PEM (marasmus and quashiorkor), which is a major health problem particularly in
the first years of life.
— (b) Nutritional anaemia : India has probably the highest prevalence of
nutritional anaemia in women and children. About one-half of non-pregnant women
and young children are estimated to suffer from anaemia. 60 to 80 per cent of
pregnant women are anaemic.
— (c) Low birth weight : About 28 per cent of babies born in India are
of low birth weight (less than 2.5 kg), as compared to about 4 per cent in some
developed countries. Maternal malnutrition and anaemia are mainly responsible
for this condition.
— (d) Iodine deficiency disorders : Goitre and
other iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) have been known to be highly endemic in
sub-Himalayan regions as well as in other parts of India as well.
— (e) Vitamin A Deficiency : About 0.04 per cent
of total blindness in India is attributed to nutritional deficiency of vitamin
A. Keratomalacia has been the major cause of nutritional blindness in children
usually between 1-3 years of age.
— (f)Others : Other nutritional problems of
importance are lathyrism and endemic fluorosis in certain parts of the country
which may be due to the widespread adulteration of foodstuffs. Apart from this
other vitamin and mineral deficiencies are also prevalent in India such as
vitamin B deficiency, vitamin C deficiency, calcium deficiency etc.
ENVIRONMENTAL
SANITATION PROBLEMS-
— The most difficult problem in this country is the environmental sanitation problem. The
problems of environmental sanitation contribute to the lack of safe water in
many areas of the country and old and insufficient methods of excreta disposal.
Besides these, there has been a growing concern about the impact of
"new" problems resulting from population explosion, urbanization and
industrialization leading to hazards to human health .
— poor sanitation leads to air pollution, water
pollution and land pollution. All these pollutions have very bad effects on
health. Environmental sanitation problem also leads to breeding places for
mosquitoes and flies. These insects causes vector born diseases such as
malaria, filaria, dengue etc.
MEDICAL
CARE PROBLEMS-
— The existing
hospital-based, disease-oriented health care model has provided health benefits
mainly to the urban elite. Approximately 80 per cent of health facilities are
concentrated in urban areas. Even in urban areas, there is an uneven distribution of doctors.
— In urban areas, urban health problems have been
aggravated and include overcrowding in hospitals, inadequate staffing and
scarcity of certain essential drugs and medicines. The rural areas where nearly
72 per cent of the population live, do not enjoy the benefits of the modern
curative and preventive health services
— The major medical care problem in India is unequal
distribution of available health resources between urban and rural areas, and
lack of penetration of health services to the
periphery specially high level medical care and services.
POPULATION
PROBLEMS-
— The population
problem is one of the biggest problems our country is facing. This is the
problem which affects s employment,
education, housing, health care,
sanitation and environmental situation of the country. The population size and
structure represent the most important single factor in health.
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