Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the Indo-French Liver and Metabolic Disease Network (InFLiMeN)
Every third Indian has fatty liver, which predates Type 2 Diabetes and other metabolic disorders, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on Friday. He was speaking at the launch of the Indo-French Liver and Metabolic Disease Network (InFLiMeN) a virtual node to prevent and cure metabolic liver diseases at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
Dr Singh is a diabetologist by training. He said: “Both the Indian subcontinent and Europe are attributable to changes in lifestyle, diet and importantly metabolic syndromes such as diabetes and obesity which have contributed to a significant rise in NAFLD. Nearly 1 in 3 Indians has fatty liver. While in the West, most NAFLD is associated with obesity, intriguingly in the Indian subcontinent, NAFLD occurs in about 20% of non-obese patients.” He added: “There is a considerable burden of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in India and France.” He said that both NAFLD and ALD exhibit a very similar progression from steatosis to steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and HCC.
Dr. Jitendra Singh advised that a joint multi-disciplinary collaborative program like InFLiMeN is urgently needed to understand the development, progression and possible management of liver diseases using a comprehensive omics approach for biomarker discovery.
Emphasizing on the co-operation and collaboration of both the Government and Private sector to provide best services to citizens and promote ease of healthy living. He also highlighted the government’s initiatives and policies aimed at supporting and improving the healthcare system. He said, “A large population in India is affected by metabolic disorders and we need India specific interventions as our phenotype is different.” We need Indian Solutions for Indian problems, he added.
He appreciated Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST along with the department and Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPERA) for taking this novel approach proposed by ILBS.
The Minister congratulated Dr. Shiv Kumar Sarin and his team along with the French collaborators. He also directed them to find remedies for the metabolic disorders in a low cost and high output manner. 11 French and 17 Indian doctors work jointly in this node.
