On World Health Day, Apollo Hospitals underlined its vision of consistently focusing on promoting health awareness and taking proactive steps towards improving the health of the nation, including unveiling reports on non-communicable diseases and initiatives for a greener planet.

The Apollo Hospitals Group, Asia’s largest and most trusted healthcare group, on Monday unveiled a report on the ”Health of the Nation” that puts a spotlight on how the last two decades have seen a steady rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

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The contribution of NCDs as the top causes of death in India has risen to a staggering 64.9% as compared to communicable diseases, maternal and other causes that dropped to 25%.

The study provides a unique perspective drawn from Apollo Hospitals’ 37 years of experience and its vast footprint across the country and underlines how artificial intelligence and big data analytics can help to predict risk and prevent NCDs.

Given the (COVID) pandemic, this is also important as individuals with NCDs such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and chronic liver disease have a greater mortality risk from COVID-19.

“Even before the pandemic began, we have been facing an unacceptable loss of lives due to non-communicable diseases. The silent epidemic of NCDs was evident with NCDs behind 40% of all hospital stays.

“However, in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the data from our Health of the Nation report made it clear that we have let another epidemic slip, the epidemic of NCDs – the impact of which we are already beginning to see around us. We can overcome NCDs together as a country, only if each and every one of us takes our health seriously,” Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said.

NCDs affect not just health, but also productivity and economic growth.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations recognises NCDs as a major challenge for sustainable development with the target to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030. The pandemic last year has exacerbated the risks and impact of NCDs manifold, as also shown in the Health of the Nation report.