It’s Time for Awards and Recognitions

Dear readers,
Thank you for providing your continuous support and encouragement to us as we bring out informative and thought-provoking content for you every month. With your good wishes and blessings, we now present Double Helical State Health Awards 2017 for Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh regions at a glittering ceremony to be held in Chandigarh on 6th November. We hope to hold a successful event that will acknowledge and honour the doctors and institutions working for the further advancement of this noble profession and welfare of the suffering humanity.
Our cover story this month is on trauma management system which is still in a primitive state in India with an appalling lack of pre-hospital care, inadequate provision of facilities for the transport of victims, and inefficient emergency and casualty services that are unable to effectively handle traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).
Concerted efforts are required for effective and sustainable prevention and management of critical injuries in India. One of the essential needs is to establish the trauma registries to monitor the system and provide state-wide cost and epidemiological statistics.
The story on coronary artery disease notes that cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially coronary artery disease (CAD), is rising at an alarming level. Even worse, we are seeing people in the age group of 40-50 years becoming prone to heart attack.
The rising epidemic of heart disease in the Indian patients is attributed largely to lifestyle related factors such as consumption of fast food, late night eating, less physical activity and more vehicular usage to travel, work- related stress, smoking and in some cases adverse family history.
Our story on cataract acknowledges contributions of Prof Jagat Ram in the field of adult and pediatric cataract and related visual sciences for the past 38 years. Presently, Director and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, he was born in a small village of a remote, backward area in Himachal Pradesh. He has risen to play a major role in establishing the Department of Ophthalmology at PGIMER as the centre of excellence on the national and global map.
Prof Ram has provided compassionate patient care for adults and children suffering from cataract over a period of more than 38 years. The most celebrated aspect of his work belongs to the field of Paediatric Cataract Surgery. Prof Ram has made outstanding contributions by helping several thousands of children suffering from congenital cataract from their infancy or childhood in restoring vision with state-of-the-art surgical techniques with intraocular lens implantation.
Then our story on the menace of pollution underlines that environment is the most important social determinant of health, causing morbidity and mortality in a given population. The WHO’s comprehensive global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks reveals that globally, an estimated 24% of the burden of disease and 23% of all deaths can be attributed to environmental factors. Further, globally, deaths on account of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), attributable to air pollution, amount to 8.2 million of the total 12.6 million deaths.
Household and ambient air pollution is the leading risk factor contributing to the burden of disease in India. According to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), air pollution was found to be the leading cause of mortality and disability in India. In Indian settings there is need for reducing sources of emissions, improving access to clean fuel and raising public awareness on health effects of air pollution.Major risk factors are household and ambient air pollution contributing to the spread of disease in India.
Household Air Pollution (HAP) is caused by solid fuels like wood, charcoal, coal, dung, crop wastes used by over 3 billion people for cooking at home. These inefficient cooking methods lead to indoor air pollution especially in houses that are poorly ventilated. Indoor air pollution not only harms health but also has adverse social and environmental effects.
There are many more interesting and insightful stories, based on intensive research and analysis. So, happy reading to all of you!

Warm regards,
Amresh K Tiwary,
Editor-in-Chief