Africa: Continent Ready For Non-Communicable Diseases Summit
By George Okore
NEW YORK----Ahead of the Global Summit on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to be held in New York in September, African medical experts are vouching for four simple steps to be taken to cure the diseases which account for over 60 percent of deaths in the continent.
The global summit will seek to tell the world the effects of NCDs on healthcare worldwide. It will also implore each Member State to take urgent and appropriate measures to engage on public awareness for the people to have lifestyles which will help avoid the onset of NCDs. These include proper dietary habits, reduction of sugar and salt intake, avoiding fatty foods, increase fruit and vegetable consumption. It will also advocate prevention, diagnosis and treating NCDs. In most African countries, the problem begins with poor diagnosis.
More worry some in Africa is scarcity of proper equipment and professional personnel to treat NCDs like cancer, or to give adequate palliative care for such diseases as diabetes through dialysis. Many Africans dying of NCDs before the age of 60 come from low-income families since they are the ones who cannot afford to travel abroad to seek treatment.
This calls for strengthening the continent’s healthcare systems by increasing access to high-quality, low-cost medicines for people at high risk of heart disease or stroke, and for people who already have diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. Furthermore, there is need for appropriate and affordable vaccines to people at risk of infection-related cancers such as cervical cancer.
At the September gathering, countries will be hard pressed to put NCDs at the forefront of their healthcare concerns .This calls for capacity building, especially in poor African countries currently weighed down by health delivery problems. The conference will also address poverty, a major hindrance to the fight against poor health in Africa and which should be declared enemy number one to global social progress, peace and security.
However, it must be appreciated that a number of efforts are ongoing in Africa to cub the NCDs. The most popular initiative is the Four by Four formula, which entails four simple sand cost effective, measures to contain the world’s four most deadly Non Communicable Diseases. The steps are physical exercise, healthy diet, No to Tobacco and lastly refraining from alcohol and drug abuse.
In Kenya, like many African countries, Diabetes, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Diseases (CVPD), Cancer and Chronic and Respiratory conditions account for majority of deaths for people aged between 30 and 69. Dr Willis Akhwale, head of Diseases Prevention and Control in Kenya says the country is aggressively and vigorously tackling both infectious as well Non Communicable Diseases.
Leading Nairobi surgeon Dr David Silverstein says in most African countries, Non Communicable Diseases are cause of most bed occupancy in many hospitals. These include cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular and pulmonary diseases, stroke, trauma, chronic respiratory diseases, gastro-intestinal and renal conditions. According to Kenya Medical Services Minister Professor Peter Anyang’ Nyongo, by 2020, more than 60 per cent of bed occupancy will be as a result of non-communicable diseases. He says many Kenyans are unable to reach health facilities and solution lies in establishing social health insurance scheme.
“Most NCDs take longer to treat, are more expensive to treat and require complicated professional intervention if not detected and treated early. On the positive side, many NCDs are preventable”, says Nairobi based Athanase Ntampuhwe, a Diabetes Expert at the Handicap International. The Rwandese doctor says with proper individual awareness and social intervention, most NCDs are controllable at lower cost if diagnosed early enough.
On a positive scale, there is a global move to ban tobacco smoking, which causes many NCDs, by accelerating the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)- a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative. Kenya being part of the responsible nations signed and ratified the document on the same day. Positively, Kenya is not resting on its laurels as far as disease control is concerned.
WHO puts the number of global deaths caused by tobacco consumption at 5 million annually and this figure is bound to rise to 10 million by the year 2030. Most of these deaths unfortunately will be accruing in developing countries and Kenya is among them. Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) conducted in 2007 indicates that the number of boys and girls in Kenya that have taken smoking is at 18.2 per cent. This is the future market that is being targeted by the industry because of the nicotine that hooks them and thus making them addicts.
According to Mr. Vincent Kimosop of Institute for Legislative Affairs (ILA), they are working closely with Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation to build the capacity of enforcement officers across the country for effective implementation Tobacco Control passed by Kenyan Parliament in 2007. The comprehensive Kenyan legislation borrows heavily from FCTC by outlawing Tobacco Advertising, Sponsorship and Promotion and bans smoking in all public places and restricts it only to specially designated zones.