OREANDA-NEWS. “Injuries and disabilities are going up” said Vijayshil Gautam, Professor and Head, Trauma and Emergency Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS, Patna who presented on the topic “Road safety and Trauma prevention” on the 3rd day’s session, chaired by Manju Sharma, pertaining to the symposium held for Health and Development which took place in the ISC 102nd of Science and Technology for Human development here today in Mumbai University Campus . 

Professor Gautam spoke about road accidents which contribute highly to the death rate. Uttar Pradesh is the state which contributes to killing maximum number of people and sadly is recorded under industrial death rather than road accidents. People are unaware or rather not empowered enough to deal with accidents and panic in case they witness one. Society as a whole needs to be empowered with knowledge and information on various health aspects in case of an emergency.

“He who has health has hope: and he who has hope has everything” began Sandeep Kumar, Director, AIIMS, Bhopal, who summarized the session of health and development. According to the world health organization that health indicators can help in the measurement of sustainable development goals and support governance. He further emphasized that healthy people are better able to learn, work and contribute to the economies and societies….sustainable development leads to improvement of health by adopting smart strategies for the reduction of communicable diseases, maternal and child health, nutrition.

Narendra Kumar Arora, Executive Director of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network, India spoke on the topic of “economic development and child health” in which he applauded the government for polio eradication which is one of the most innovative public health achievements. Further he added that the country turned the tide of HIV epidemic, cutting new infections by more than half in just a decade and averting the disaster that had been predicted by many. He emphasized that educating mothers and processing of clean water are two important steps in the development of child health.

“Non-communicable diseases are a threat to the developing and under developing countries” stated K , K Srinath Reddy, President of the Public health foundation of India elaborating on the adverse effects of non-communicable diseases which targets the young population as well. These diseases cause loss of productivity which leads to disabilities. He said that non communicable disease agenda is a core element which leads to sustainable development.

All the speakers shared one view in common that the government should have co-ordination between the various health care departments and each department should come ahead and actively take part in the sanitation and innovation ideas that could help in curbing the non-communicable diseases and that each person is wholly responsible for the society and one should not wait for answers from the government or others.