Hyderabad, April 7 (NationPress) The Telangana government has officially classified cancer as a notifiable disease, which requires both public and private healthcare facilities to report all cancer cases.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health, Medical and Family Welfare issued a directive mandating the reporting of all diagnosed cancer cases in the state, aimed at ensuring the availability of accurate and timely data for public health initiatives.

According to the order, every case of cancer, including both in situ and invasive cancers, diagnosed or registered at any healthcare facility, laboratory, or Registrar of Births and Deaths within the state must be reported within a month of diagnosis or registration via a designated portal using the specified format.

The main goal of this classification is to establish a strong surveillance system for cancer, which will help in estimating cancer incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates. This will support enhanced preventive screening and early detection efforts, aid in planning for diagnostic and treatment services, palliative care, rehabilitation, and evidence-based policy-making, monitoring, and research.

The order specifies that a unified Cancer Registry for the state will act as a centralized hub for estimating cancer incidence and prevalence.

The District Medical and Health Officer is tasked with ensuring that all hospitals, institutions, bodies, and laboratories within their jurisdiction report all diagnosed cancer cases.

To facilitate this process, each facility must maintain a dedicated cancer register in the prescribed format to document both existing and newly diagnosed cases from the date of this notification.

The Director of Public Health and Family Welfare will oversee the timely submission and quality of the information provided.

Hospitals enrolled in the Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Scheme will be automatically registered and given login credentials to submit cancer case information via the state online portal.

Other hospitals, institutions, bodies, and laboratories will need to register online to obtain login credentials for submitting cancer case details through the designated portal.

The Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre in Hyderabad will serve as a Centre of Excellence for cancer care in Telangana, responsible for the periodic review and validation of cancer case data to ensure accuracy.

The order highlights the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, which has become a significant public health issue.

Cancer is recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality, emphasizing the necessity for a systematic approach to gather reliable and timely information about the disease burden in the state.

Comprehensive data on cancer incidence, prevalence, distribution, and types is crucial for evaluating the extent and trends of the disease, identifying risk factors, and developing effective screening strategies, as stated in the order.

Effective cancer registration will provide insights into diagnosis, treatment, palliative care, rehabilitation services, and long-term follow-up.

This data will enable targeted policies and assessment of ongoing interventions to ensure efficient resource allocation.

Currently, only institutional-level registries are managed at the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences and the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology under the state government.

This notification applies to all governmental (including autonomous), private, and cooperative hospitals, as well as medical college hospitals, Employees’ State Insurance, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, railways, military hospitals, and other private clinics, nursing homes, and hospices offering cancer treatment or care; AYUSH hospitals providing cancer care; NGOs; insurance companies; pathology and radiology imaging laboratories; the Vital Statistics Department or Registrar of Births and Deaths; and any other government or private schemes collecting cancer case data.