• Globally 1.9 billion people are overweight.
• Healthy diet, exercise and annual screening advised.
Image: JOHN KAMAU
Nearly 700 million people in the world suffer from obesity, a conference was told.
Experts attending a medical symposium organised by Mount Kenya University in Nairobi on Saturday said obesity is a ticking time bomb that should be dealt with urgently.
The event brought together medical practitioners from India, Uganda and Kenya to discuss management of lifestyle diseases.
Roslyne Ngugi, head of department of internal medicine at MKU, said globally 1.9 billion people are overweight.
She said out of this over 650 million suffer from obesity. Ngugi said drastic and concerted efforts by all stakeholders are need to tackle the problem.
"Obesity is clearly a big problem. Obesity predisposes one to other diseases like cancer, stroke and heart attack," she said.
The MKU lecturer said instead of waiting for patients to go to hospital when the doctor can do very little to help the patient, there is a need to create awareness on lifestyle diseases and how to manage them.
She said the priority should be to sensitize people on screening at least once a year. Second, there should be focus on healthy diet. Third, people must exercise. She said the American Diabetic Association advocates 30 minutes of exercise five days a week.
She said child obesity in the country stands at 21 per cent up from four per cent only five years ago.
She said MKU has taken the initiative to educate the general public on lifestyle diseases.
"We want to educate mwananchi, students and teachers sending the message on the need for a healthy diet and exercise," Ngugi said.
She urged those with obesity to go to the hospital so they can be guided on how to deal with their condition.
MKU co-founder Jane Nyutu who is also a member of the board of directors of the varsity said MKU was committed to supplementing the Jubilee administration in realization of universal health care.
"We need to have a healthy and productive population," she said.