I am not just angry but livid with the political 24 Sept 2000 system and the
media. Our "capable" politicians did some public breast beating on young
Kumaramangalam’s untimely death and the media reported this ritual without any
thought.The Minister had a form of blood cancer called leukaemia.Having suffered from
another form of blood cancer called lymphoma-three times in just six years, and thanks to
God I am still alive, having achieved some kind of record, I guess-I have some idea of
what it takes to deal with cancer and, as an environmentalist, I have a deep interest in
the role of pollution, lifestyles and diet in its causation. But there was not one
substantive political statement or media report on how to deal with this horrifying
disease on which there is nothing but a conspiracy of silence from the Government.Unable to deal with traditional diseases like diarrhoea and
malaria, the Ministry of Health has been acting like an ostrich, refusing even to
acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. But when a young minister dies, for the media,
he provides an excellent peg for substantive reports on a major public health problem,
which today affects more than a million new people every year.How could the media have
missed such an opportunity?
Kumaramangalam died of leukaemia not because the private
sector Apollo Hospital misdiagnosed him and the "prestigious" All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) failed to deal with him, but because cancer
treatment is extremely poor in this country even as pollution in cities like Delhi is
making people more susceptible to the disease. What is great is that Cancer is
a great leveller, and even important people do not escape it except, of course, ordinary
people who do not get a bevy of doctors flitting around them. For a poor person, the very
diagnosis of cancer is equal to death. According to Dr. Vinod Raina of AIIMS, only about
30 percent of the patients diagnosed with Cancer undergo treatment because of the cost and
many drop out halfway having run out of money. The average cost of treatment of cancer can
be some Rs.2-3 lakhs and that is when there are no major complications. Parliament was
told recently that the Government has spent Rs.6 crores on the treatment of former Prime
Minister. Mr.V.P.Singh.
Cancer treatment is becoming better- in the United
States, survival rates for many cancer is now higher than 50 percent - but, unfortunately,
the cost of treatment is also going up. For example, an infusion of monoclonal antibodies
of a bone marrow transplant is now recommended for various cancers, which greatly
increases the chances of success. Monoclonal antibodies, for instance, can specifically
target cancer cells but one infusion can cost as much as Rs. One lakh and a patient may
have to take several.
So what do we do in India? First, we have to take the
preventive route, especially because we have far too many poor people who cannot afford
treatment. Unless, of course, our politicians do not mind poor people dying despite all
their pro-poor rhetoric. This means controlling pollution- a gigantic task for the
Government: - and educating people to have better diets and improve their lifestyles. For
instance, awareness of the risks of smoking has cut lung cancer rates dramatically in the
U.S. But, in India, there is very little health education; fruits, vegetables and dairy
products are full of pesticides; and, pollution of air, water and soil is growing by leaps
and bounds. The Government does not even collect cancer data properly or regularly and
make it known to the public. Considered to be a secret by the Government, we had to ferret
out the data with the help of a doctor.
The latest data on cancer incidence is available for 1991
only and that too only from hospitals in five metros and one rural area. But even the data
available is very worrying.
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A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE