India taking great strides in universal health: Prof Jena
CUTTACK: Head of the Department of Haematology, SCB Medical College and hospital, Prof RK Jena presented India’s strides in making expensive medical treatment like bone marrow transplant (BMT) and advanced drugs for blood cancer accessible to patients before an elite gathering of top haematologists in the world at Tokyo in Japan.
Delivering the keynote address in the joint session of Asian countries during the 85th annual congress of the Japanese Society of Hematology, held from October 12 to 15, Prof Jena spoke on the feasibility of BMT ( autologous) in multiple myeloma (a type of blood cancer) in India and its challenges and opportunities.
While in the major part of the world, the cost of treatment for critical diseases like cancer is insurance dependent, in India both the centre and states have included most of the drugs in their essential drug list and provide them free to patients.
Odisha has been the first state in the country to provide BMT entirely free of cost and many other states have followed suit, he said. Delegates from the American Society of Hematology, European Hematology Association and Asian countries attended.