Many preventable diseases still take toll on state health

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New Delhi: Every year several diseases claim numerous lives in Odisha. However, these diseases can be easily prevented through immunisation or other prophylactic measures, the National Health Profile, released here Tuesday hinted.
The Health Profile for 2018 has been prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence and was released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda. The profile compiles details of disease burdens and other health-related statistics from different Indian states, including Odisha.
As per the report, Odisha is reported to be losing several precious lives every year to communicable diseases, many of which could easily be prevented through proper vaccination and other prophylactic measures.
The report claims that as per the provisional data till December 2017, Odisha reported 18966 cases of Pneumonia while 232 people suffering from the disease lost their lives due to the pneumococcal infection during the period while vaccinations to prevent the disease is available in health institutions.
The data mentioned in the report, derived from the Directorate of Health Services, also said that 2886 cases of viral Hepatitis were reported in 2017 while 38 people died in the state due to the communicable disease while vaccination for Hepatitis is also available.
Other preventable diseases like Rabies also took two lives in Odisha last year while 848 Measles cases were also reported in the state for the same period. Moreover, 23 neonatal Tetanus cases were reported in Odisha in 2017 while four succumbed to the preventable disease.
On the other side, other communicable diseases which reported maximum fatalities in Odisha included-Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases (78 deaths), Encephalitis (70 deaths), H1N1 (54 deaths) Viral Meningitis (13 deaths) and Dengue (6 deaths). However nationally Odisha reported the highest number of Dengue cases.
On the other hand, there are also some diseases for which not a single case was reported from Odisha. Diseases which reported zero cases included Chikungunia, Kalazar, Cholera and Diptheria.