‘India needs to improve health care as part of global MDGs’

India and many other southeast Asian countries need to improve their record on public health care, the WHO said on Wednesday as it warned that the world will fall short in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on many indicators by the end of this year.

“Its been incredible progress in the past 25 years particularly in the fight against the epidemics of HIV, TB and malaria,” said Ties Boerma, Director, Health Statistics and Information System, World Health Organization (WHO) releasing the World Health Statistics 2015 report.

“Also, increase in safe drinking water. Much progress in child malnutrition, maternal and child mortality but those are still quite far from the targets we set for the MDGs. We are not likely to achieve it by the end of this year,” he said.

Speaking of India’s slow progress, Boerma said, “There is less progress for family planning, ante-natal care indicators. It is a mixed picture. It is a progress picture but not as spectacular as in western Pacific”.

“One particular area is measles immunisation where India has lagged behind in achieving good coverage and that hopefully will change in the future,” said Colin Mathers, Coordinator, Department of Mortality & Burden of Disease, WHO.

Measles immunisation coverage among one-year-olds was 74 per cent in India in 2013 which is one of the lowest in the Southeast Asian region.

India has seen only a 58 <g data-gr-id="32">per cent</g> reduction in under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2013, again one of the lowest reductions in the region, ahead only of North Korea, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Mathers said.