Here’s what is killing India!

British healthcare journal, Lancet, has been the biggest critic of the India’s healthcare system—a major poll promise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But this isn’t for no reason. The healthcare system in India is abysmal.

According to Hisao Masuda, managing director of OMRON Healthcare India, lifestyle diseases are the major killers in India. “A whopping over 30% (380 million people) of Indians suffer from hypertension and 60% of them are not even aware of it,” he says as he opens a slide that shows some really disturbing facts about the health care in India.

This statistics also implicates that the remaining 40% that is over 150 million people in India know that they are suffering from hypertension and high blood pressure. The company has sold over 5 lakh units of their blood pressure monitoring devices in the country last year and the market for this particular product is expected to grow substantially.

Apart from hypertension or high blood pressure, India also has a large number of Indians commonly suffer from severe breathing problem. And this Masuda attributes to the level of air pollution that unfortunately plagues India. “Diabetes, respiratory problems and obesity are the primary factors for poor health of the country since these are linked to a lot of other diseases. It has become a life style issue now. These are called NCDs (Non communicable disease) leading to 60% of deaths in India.,” he added.

It should be noted that the healthcare sector in India was $73 billion market in 2011 and is projected to become $280 billion market by 2020.

Image credit: Indiatimes