Hyderabad: Of the total 56 million deaths globally in 2015, only 27 million were registered with a cause of death.
Due to this the World Health Organisation is insisting on proper collection of data in India too. The WHO is keen that maternal deaths, deaths due to neonatal issues, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, which continue to top the charts in the world, are recorded properly and the government be notified of these deaths.
The reason WHO is insisting on collecting data is because it can help the government find out the exact cause of death and reduce the trend of these ailments. But sadly, the numbers which are available from most of the Indian states are only from government hospitals.
A senior health department officer in the state explained, “We require the data from the private sector too and that is far from happening. For this reason, the district medical and health officers have to ensure proper registration, renewal and strict action if not followed. Accurate information from the ground level is required to take the right action. Every monsoon, dengue is a major scare and during winter months it is swine flu. The exact data about prevalence will help generate health alerts and also lead to proper preventive measures which the general public has to follow.”
For maternal mortality and neonatal mortality, the records continue to be given only from government hospitals and strengthening of the systems in the private sector is being demanded.
