NGO survey reveals rising burden of diseases in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and kidney ailments take a heavy toll on the health profile of the residents living in old city of Hyderabad. A health survey by an NGO in areas south of the river Musi has revealed that about 12% of the adults have diabetes and about 20% have reported hypertension while 5% suffer from heart diseases.

The NGO, Helping Hand Foundation (HHF), in its survey report released on Thursday said the incidence of cancer is increasing in the city. About one-third of the cancer cases in Telangana are from Hyderabad. The cancer of head and neck, particularly oral cancer in men, breast cancer in women and blood cancer in children below 5 years is causing concern, the report said.

“Pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB is also alarmingly high in teenage population of old city. An estimated 600 to 700 new cases of TB are reported every month,” the report said, adding that one in three families with one or more members with noncommunicable diseases are under the burden of loans or are in debt due to borrowing money to meet medical expenses.

Helping Hand Foundation managing trustee Mujtaba Hasan Askari said about 25% of households in old city slums suffer from chronic illnesses. Many students of higher education are forced to discontinue studies to take up menial jobs to support the families.

He said about 13,000 patients from poor sections of society were provided medical help during 2019 in government hospitals. Patients were encouraged to approach government hospitals, and this had helped the poor families save about ₹7 crore during the year.

The rising burden of noncommunicable diseases is putting a huge amount of mental and financial stress on the common man from the city and by linking them to the public health system a great amount of justice is being done, Mujtaba Hasan added.

As part of the survey, HHF volunteers visited houses and hospitals in the city, particularly in old city, to collect data about various health issues vis-à-vis the financial burden the families are subjected to due to non-communicable diseases. Several health checkup camps were set up and data collected during such exercises were computed to arrive at the burden of disease in old city and other parts of Hyderabad.