The Telangana government has issued orders making cancer a notifiable disease, mandating compulsory registration and reporting of all diagnosed cases across the State as part of a move to strengthen surveillance and public health response. The order was issued by Health Secretary Christina Z. Chongthu on Monday.
The order said that at present only institution-level cancer registries exist in Telangana, including Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre (MNJIO RCC) in Hyderabad. The absence of a uniform, State-wide system was cited as a gap in public health planning.
To address this, the government has introduced a mandatory reporting mechanism requiring all diagnosed cancer cases, from both government and private hospitals, to be reported. The objective is to establish a robust surveillance system capable of estimating incidence, prevalence and mortality, supporting early detection and screening, aiding treatment and rehabilitation services, and facilitating evidence-based policy-making, monitoring and research. A uniform cancer registry will function as a centralised platform for the State, the order said.
