Deccan Chronicle: Kochi: Saturday,
February 04, 2017.
A reply under
Right to Information Act reveals that on the average 55,000 new cancer cases
are registered yearly at the registry at Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. But a consolidated list
of the total number of cancer patients, including those turning up for
follow-ups, was not available. Health department stats point to more than
20,000 cancer deaths every year. The RTI reply was given by Sobha K R, junior
superintendent at the health department. Mr Dhanaraj Subhash Chandran, a
Kochi-based RTI activist and IT professional, had sent the RTI query.
The Cancer
Care initiative by Health Department manages to detect 1,800 cases, of them 800
in rural areas. The state government conducts 13 different programmes. There
are non-communicable disease clinics in all district General Hospitals. Insulin
and other NCD drugs are being given free of cost. There are mobile lifestyle
clinics and other lifestyle diseases. RCC’s hospital-based Cancer Registry in
Thiruvananthapuram started in 1982 under the network of Indian Council of
Medical Research.
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