India boosts health spending to eradicate leprosy

Diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis and black fever still cause pain and suffering to a large number of poor people across India, where the government seeks to eradicate the illnesses through a major health spending plan.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Indian parliament as he presented the budget on Wednesday that cash would flow particularly to poorer rural areas, where preventable illnesses are rife.

"Poverty is usually associated with poor health," the Indian minister was quoted as saying.

"It is the poor who suffer the maximum from chronic diseases."

India reported 200,000 cases of leprosy in 2015.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 2.5 million cases of tuberculosis reported in 2015.

Jaitley said black fever and filariasis would be stamped out by the end of 2017, with leprosy following a year later.

The target for the eradication of tuberculosis is 2025. The government hopes that measles will also be eradicated by 2020.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the finance minister outlined ambitious goals for reducing maternal and infant mortality across India.

The Indian government announced a 23-percent increase in spending on its underfunded public health system. India, home to one-seventh of the world's population, spends just over one percent of its gross domestic product on its healthcare system.

SS