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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  Ourview | Honest numbers needed
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Ourview | Honest numbers needed

Ourview | Honest numbers needed

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A recent study in The Lancet has found that the global death toll in the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009 was severely under-reported. While officially 18,500 laboratory-confirmed H1N1 deaths were reported worldwide from April 2009 to August 2010, these scientists report that an estimated 151,700-575,400 people died as a result of having contracted H1N1 in the first year that the virus circulated worldwide.

More tellingly, experts connected with the report have specifically indicted India and said that these results are likely to be refined as more studies from low-income and middle-income regions become available, particularly from the country and China, where about one-third of the world’s population lives, but where little information is available about the burden of influenza.

The Indian government should take particular note of this study, given its general reluctance to give honest assessment of the numbers afflicted with infectious and vector-borne diseases. Earlier this year, the health ministry finally decided to revise upwards its annual malaria mortality figures by a staggering factor of 40, again after The Lancet pointed this out through another related study. Even on matters such as admitting the true incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis, the government has tried to falsify independent estimates and, in some cases, attempted to punish its own experts who differed with the government-collated data.

It is unclear why Indian authorities are dishonest about reporting the disease burden. Maybe the prevalence of infectious diseases, which are still widespread despite the fact that their cures were discovered in the early 19th century, doesn’t sit well with the tag of being the fourth largest economy in the world. It also could be that the ubiquity of such ailments doesn’t sit well with government’s relentless efforts to project India as a destination for medical tourism. However, it’s high time health officials realized that under-reporting mortality statistics will only lead to more suspicions about India’s health system, as this study points out. This, in turn, grossly tarnishes any Indian ambition to be a medical tourism destination. So, before anything else, the government must be seen to be seriously ensuring that public health comes first.

Can the government get its public-health act together? Tell us at views@livemint.com

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Published: 01 Jul 2012, 07:59 PM IST
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