New
Delhi, Aug 20 : Every hour, cancer kills at least 50 people
in India and claims 100 new patients.
According
to data collected through the National Cancer Registry Programme
(NCRP) by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an
estimated 440,000 people die of cancer every year and about
700,000 to 900,000 new cancer cases are detected annually.
At any
given point, there are 2.5 million cancer patients in the
country, Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi said
Monday.
The International
Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO) in Lyon, France, estimates
that about 74 percent of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income
countries.
About
50 percent deaths from cancer, the fourth commonest cause
for deaths in India, are due to tobacco use, the minister
informed the Rajya Sabha.
"The
central government has enacted a comprehensive tobacco control
legislation titled 'The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products
(Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and
Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003'
to discourage the consumption of tobacco," she said.
Besides,
the National Cancer Control Programme is supplementing the
efforts of the state governments by providing financial assistance
for setting up oncology wings in government medical colleges
and hospitals for providing treatment facilities, the minister
explained.
(IANS)
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