India faces problems with both communicable and non
communicable diseases. The major non communicable
diseases are cancer, cardiovascular disease and
diabetes mellitus. This article focuses on communicable
diseases (infectious diseases) especially viral
infections of public health importance. The infections
include bacterial, parasitic and viruses. It could be said
that fungal infections by the nature of the spread are
not of public health concern. The viral infections are
transmitted by the respiratory route, water and food
borne route, vectors and blood and blood products,
sexual route and are of major concern. Efforts are
aimed at early detection, prevention by use of vaccines
and sentinel surveillance. For the success of public
health programmes sentinel surveillance of diseases is
mandatory. India has got several programme
initiatives addressing the problem. The programs
include IDSP, VBDCP and NACO. The approximate
cumulative annual prevalence of infectious disease in
India ranges from 100 to 200 million individuals
affected in one year. India should aim to improve case
detection by strengthening laboratory services with
manpower training and nationwide quality control
scheme, sentinel surveillance activity and prevention
by improving the efficiency and scope of UIP. Also,
creation of a single portal of infectious disease data
handling hub to collect information from different
sources will help avoid overlap and duplication of
reporting