CDC Director lauds India for TB and tobacco use control efforts, urges preparations to fight NCDs

CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who currently is visiting India and who previously worked with the Indian government assisting in tuberculosis (TB) control, praised the country's "progress in controlling tuberculosis and tobacco use" on Monday during a speech to health practitioners and policymakers, according to the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog. Frieden also noted "India's strides in the past decade on … polio control and HIV/AIDS prevention," the blog reports.

Frieden "said India has to do more to prepare itself to tackle the rapid rise in non-communicable diseases [NCDs], like diabetes and heart ailments, that he said will globally 'kill four times as many people by 2020 as infectious diseases,'" and "[h]e stressed the role of the government in ensuring progress in healthcare," according to the blog (Pokharel, 8/9).