Cancer affects North East the most: Ramadoss

Shillong, June 27: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Ambumani Ramadoss here today informed that majority of people in North East suffer from Cancer followed by Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

He also expressed his concern over the high incidence of maternity and infant mortality rate in the region and called for immediate remedies to check further increase.

''The incidence of the cancer in the NE is slightly more than one per 1000 population, which is higher than the national incidence,'' Dr Ramadoss told reporters at North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute for Medical Sciences (NEIGRIMS) in Mawdiangdiang here.

Dr Ramadoss, who was here leading a 15-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, said the government had decided to set up a 100-bedded regional cancer institute NEIGRIMS campus to tackle this killer disease.

The number of HIV patients in the NE region vary from 0.04 per cent in Asom to 1.48 per cent in Nagaland and 1.78 per cent in Manipur, he said adding that all the districts in Manipur and Nagaland have been identified as category A districts.

UNI