25-07-2025
AP to launch NCD 4.0 survey with comprehensive reforms
Vijayawada: Minister for medical, health, and family welfare Y Satya Kumar Yadav announced that the Andhra Pradesh government will launch the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) 4.0 survey in September 2025. The current NCD 3.0 survey, launched on November 14, 2024, with a target to screen 4.1 crore people, has so far screened around 3 crore individuals and will continue through August.
Addressing a workshop at China Kakani in Guntur district, the minister emphasised the need for better coordination among health workers to ensure accurate results in cancer detection under NCD 4.0. Drawing from personal experience — having lost his mother and sibling to cancer — he stressed the urgency of curbing its spread in the state.
He revealed that Andhra Pradesh reports around 75,000 new cancer cases and 30,000 cancer-related deaths annually. NCDs now account for 68 per cent of all deaths in the state, surpassing the national average of 65 per cent. Oral cancer screenings reached 2.9 crore, while breast and cervical cancer screenings each reached 2 crore. However, only 0.35 per cent were diagnosed with cancer, a detection rate lower than the national average.
The health minister attributed this discrepancy to several systemic gaps in NCD 3.0, including inadequate training, lack of public awareness, social stigma, poor field-level coordination, and minimal oversight. He admitted that although 70 per cent of the screening target was achieved, flaws in execution affected data reliability.
NCD 4.0 will be launched with a structured action plan, real-time monitoring, improved training, and systemic reforms to enhance efficiency and accuracy in early detection, especially for cancer cases.
