Kenya: Alarm Over Rise In Modern Lifestyle Diseases Mortality
By Staff Writer
Inter-agency taskforce led by the United Nation’s (UN) has said that poor lifestyle choices are the cause of the alarming rise in number of young Kenyans dying of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The findings by the taskforce, which was on a week-long mission to the country to strategize on how to battle NCDs, show that approximately 100, 000 (27%) of deaths between people aged 30 to 70 in Kenya annually are due to various modern diseases such as heart ailments, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases.
This statistics are higher than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global target of less than 25% of premature deaths from NCDs by 2025.
Economic Survey done this year found that malaria is the most fatal communicable disease in the country, with 46,000 deaths in 2013 alone, while HIV/Aids killed 11,448 people.
Smoking of tobacco was identified as the main risk factor for these alarming deaths followed by physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and harmful use of alcohol, respectively.
Due to these reasons, the report says, over half of all in-patient admissions as well as 40% all hospital deaths are due to NCDs thus straining the healthcare budget.
Despite of the findings of the taskforce which includes representatives of WHO, UNAids, UNFPA and the World Bank praising the government’s response in preventing the diseases, it faulted it for spending too little on healthcare in general, while raising concerns about the lifestyle choices Kenyans make.
“Health expenditure is less than 5% of Gross Domestic Product, significantly less than the 15% goal set out in the Abuja Declaration of 1989.
“While posing clear health concerns, NCDs are also responsible for reducing productivity, curtailing economic growth and trapping the poorest people in chronic poverty in Kenya. The probability of dying too young from an NCD in Kenya is 18%,” the report notes.
It raised concerns on the increasing number of Kenyan men who smoke and the percentage of children who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the government was taking the issue seriously.
“This is not just about Kenya, it cuts across the region, it is an issue for Africa,” he said.
Last month, Queen of Heart Project Campaign was officially launched at Kivuli Centre-Koinonia Community in Nairobi, with the aim of raising Ksh 1billion to provide health care services to people suffering from NCDs by building health facilities and creating public awareness about lifestyle diseases through fashion and modeling as an art and culture.
The long term objectives of the project is longer so as to create more platforms to educate communities across Africa on NCDs, importance of good diet and nutrition in order to reduce and control and eventually prevent the menace of lifestyle diseases.