Kolkata: The West Bengal government has declared cancer as a notifiable disease making it mandatory for hospitals and doctors to report every case of the disease that comes to their notice, an official said Wednesday.
The direction is aimed at maintaining a proper database and better surveillance.
The order issued by the state health department has made its mandatory for all medical establishments to report the number of cancer patients at their hospitals or centres to the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI).
"Cancer is now a notifiable disease in Bengal. The order has been issued on Dec 28. All the medical establishments have to report the number of cancer patients at their establishment to CNCI," said Jaydip Biswas, director, CNCI.
"It will enable us to have a complete database of cancer and better surveillance of the disease. It will also help us to locate the areas where the number of cancer patients are high," said Biswas.
Biswas added that all medical establishments in the state would get the order by the first week of January.
IANS
