Speeches & Remarks
Official Text
February 10. 2012
Remarks By CG Jennifer McIntyre At The Seminar On Prevention And Control Of Non-Communicable Diseases
Thank you Dr. Mohan for inviting me today. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you and learning about the cutting edge work of your organization. My congratulations to Dr. Reddy on your award today.
Greetings to the esteemed speakers on the dais and medical professionals here today. I am pleased to be here at this tenth seminar on “Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases”.
NCD’s remain a challenging issue for both of two countries. But in this area, as in so many others, the U.S. and India are working together to find pragmatic and affordable solutions to improve the health and quality of life of our citizens.
I want to speak briefly today on how our two countries are meeting specific challenges head on. NCD’s are proving to be increasingly costly and damaging for both of our countries.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates almost two-thirds of deaths in the world are due to non-communicable diseases. That’s 35 million deaths each year. NCD’s cost the U.S. and Indian economies billions of dollars each year, and limits the activity and productivity of tens of millions of our citizens.
Given that more people die from NCD’s now than from infectious diseases, it behooves us to identify risk factors, and work together on disease prevention and treatment.
Health is one of the key pillars of the U.S.-India strategic partnership and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health (NIH) both work closely with Indian counterparts.
CDC’s Global Disease Detection Center and its cooperation with India is a flagship in this regard. NIH supports grants to Indian scientists on research across a spectrum of diseases and fosters solid US-Indian partnerships. And of course, today’s program and training is funded in part by a grant from NIH.
Currently, CDC works with India and other countries to prevent and reduce the burden of NCD’s.
Their efforts include: Disease surveillance and epidemiology; Identifying risk factors and evidence-based prevention strategies; Using data to increase effective public health action; and Increasing country capacity and skill development.
These are some general areas in which the U.S. and India are able to work together.
Another joint initiative under discussion is participation in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an effort at a global partnership to help 100 million households adopt cleaner cookstove alternatives by 2020.
Cooking and heating with solid fuels indoors pollutes the air and increases the risk of illness for nearly 3 billion people worldwide.
This type of indoor air pollution is the leading cause of lung cancer and chronic lung diseaseamong nonsmoking women in the world’s poorest communities.
The risk for cardiovascular diseases, digestive and cervical cancers, and low birth weight babies may increase when women breathe this unsafe air every day.
Secretary Hillary Clinton, during her visit to Chennai last year, met with local cookstove experts from the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute who highlighted the importance of the cookstove alliance and observed some of the technology, being designed and implemented locally, to provide a clean and affordable alternative to traditional fossil fuel-burning stoves.
Cancer is another area where our two countries are working together.
As a part of U.S.-India continuing cooperation, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins was in South India in December to meet with key science counterparts, and deliver a riveting lecture on the “Human Genome and Beyond” at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
As you all probably know, Dr. Collins led the international Human Genome Project, which in 2003, achieved the complete sequencing of the three billion letters in the human DNA instruction book.
Dr. Collins spoke about how India and other countries are working on identifying genetic markers for different types of cancer, and how each country is focusing on cancers that occur more often in local populations. He highlighted India’s role in working on cancers of the mouth.
Scientists in both of our countries, separately and together, are working towards conquering this “Emperor of All Maladies”.
Now that title, of course, comes from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Indian-American Siddhartha Mukherjee, who is another great example of the strong links between our two countries. Mukherjee grew up in India but did his university studies in the U.S. He now works at Columbia University in New York City.
His book, subtitled “a biography of cancer”, has had an incredible impact on the field, raising awareness about cancer worldwide and drawing much needed attention to the ongoing work of researchers, epidemiologists and oncologists in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
And I have no better example today of how the India and the U.S. can successfully work together in public and private partnerships then the cutting edge work of Dr. Mohan and NIH funded partnerships with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, include collaborations with the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, and Emory University, among other U.S. and foreign partners to forward research, and training for medical students in the areas of diabetes.
So as you set off today to discuss prevention and control of NCD’s, take comfort in knowing there is increasing awareness of the importance of your work, and increasing support from the governments of the United States and India to help make your efforts a success.
Thank you for inviting me today, and best wishes for a productive session.
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