Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Dr Ravi Kannan praises Union Government's steps to combat cancer in country

Morigaon (Assam) [India], March 23 : Ramon Magsaysay Awardee and renowned surgical oncologist Padma Shri Dr Ravi Kannan has praised the initiatives taken by the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat cancer in the country.
Dr Kannan stated Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) is a landmark programme.
"This is a very important initiative to reduce out of pocket expenses to help people to find treatment. Because they get treated they get cured. Every year this programme is improved. I think it is a fine programme for the country," Dr Ravi Kannan said to ANI.
He also said the North East India has much higher incidents of cancer compared to other parts of the country.
"The population in the entire North East is small, it is about 5 crore. There are 30,000 new cases every year. If you look at the rest of country, incidents is slower because of population is higher that is 1.4 billion population, the number is much higher. So if we pay attention to bring about lifestyle changes we can control cancer more easily than the rest of the country. The lifestyle changes will also help prevent many other diseases. All the governments, NGOs, civil society join together and promote health then it will change in the North East", he said.
He further emphasised that detection is at least two components one is primary prevention and another is signs and symptoms of cancer.
"The early detection will save lives. Oral cancer is very common in the North East India. The mortality is high because of two-three reasons. One is many patients come with very advanced disease, second is people don't pay seek attention in early because they don't aware possibility of cancer and third is they afraid of expenditure. But now there are lots of support available from the government, civil society. If they make aware of the support options then it will help reduce mortality," Dr Kannan said.
Talking about cancer vaccine, the renowned surgical oncologist said that, right now the only vaccine is approved to prevent the cancer is cervical cancer and Hepatitis B cancer.
"India has made its own vaccine and likely vaccine will become a part of the national immunization programme. Then all the kids will get cervical cancer vaccine. There are many challenges in different places", Kannan said.
The Cancer Care India on Saturday conferred Dr Ravi Kannan with its the Lifetime Achievement Award.
During a programme of Cancer Care India held at Pobitora in Assam's Morigaon district by aiming to aware the people about cancer, Assam Minister Kaushik Rai, Cancer Care India president Devashish Sharma who is also the District Commissioner of Morigaon district gave the award to the renowned surgical oncologist who is the Director of Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Silchar.
Cancer Care India president and District Commissioner of Morigaon district Devashish Sharma told ANI, "Today is the big day for Morigaon district. For the first time the Cancer Care India is hosting a national conference and people who are working for 40 years in the field of cancer from different parts of the country, 4 Padma Shri awardees have participated this programme. They are going to share their experiences in micro and macro level," Devashish Sharma said.