Ministers and renowned lawmakers today called for a coordinated and multisectoral approach to expanding the reach of awareness, diagnosis, and treatment at the IHW Council’s Breast Cancer Action Day Summit, emphasising the importance of preventive health care.
The government is working on a mission mode with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) to expand the reach of healthcare services for breast cancer and other major diseases in the coming years. MoS Lekhi outlined three pillars for preventing breast cancer-related deaths: a) women’s health promotion; b) timely diagnosis; and c) comprehensive treatment.
Meanwhile, health experts cautioned against the changing lifestyle imitating the West as a major reason for the higher incidence of breast cancer in India. One Indian woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 4 minutes while every 8 minutes one Indian woman dies of breast cancer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020 alone, 2.3 million women across the world were diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 6 lakh died.
