Medical community urged to find suitable vacacines for diseases

Chandigarh, Mar 7 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today called upon the medical community to find suitable vaccines for preventing some of the diseases in the country, particularly HIV/AIDS.

In his address at the 28th convocation of Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here, he said he realized that for our country the important current health mission is to combat TB, water borne diseases like Diarrhea, and vector borne diseases like Malaria apart from infectious diseases, cardiac diseases, cancer and HIV AIDS.

''I realize that the medical experts assembled here are required to carry out research in all the areas, which I have mentioned above for finding cost effective medical care, which can reach our rural masses. In addition the medical community should also find suitable vaccines for preventing some of the diseases in our country, particularly for HIV/AIDS.'' He said India had made considerable progress in its health status since its independence and particularly during the last fifteen years. At the time of independence, the life expectancy of an Indian was less than thirty years, whereas it is now over 64 years.

Infant mortality has come down from 87 to 60 deaths per 1000 live births and population growth rate has decreased from 1.9 per cent to 1.4 per cent. Still infant mortality is very high. ''We have to bring it to the level, which has been achieved by Kerala.

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