Clergy to help curb rising burden of chronic diseases

The church has moved in to help curb the rising burden of non-communicable diseases in the country.

This comes amid fears that the ailments might soon put a strain on the healthcare systems.

Data from the Health ministry shows that NCDs were responsible for 39 per cent of Kenyan deaths in 2020, up from 27 per cent in 2014.

Also known as chronic diseases, NCDs tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors.

The rise of NCDs has been driven by primarily four major risk factors; tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets.

The highest morbidity and mortality has been recorded in Central with a worrisome trend in the Coast and Western regions.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya on Wednesday launched the "Afya Njema Programmme" that seeks to strengthen NCDs management across health facilities under its management.

This will see the church and the hospitals integrate the critical aspects of NCDs awareness, early screening and diagnosis, referral and management.

“We would like to use our pulpits and all the other forums we have to pass the message of awareness for people of Kenya to understand NCDS.

"People ought to understand what are these diseases and why are they killing more and more people with such an exponential growth,” NCCK SG Canon Chris Kinyanjui said.

“The graph is not flat, the graph is not even having a small gradient, there is actually a dramatic rise of the number of people and we see these as a major concern,” he added.

In September, the ministry raised concern over the growing burden of NCDs in Murang’a county with data showing that the number of people with diabetes doubled to 28,447 in 2019 up from 14,970 in 2017.

Similarly, the cases of patients recorded with arthritis and other related diseases grew to a high level of 121,426 in 2019 from a smaller figure of 39,053 in 2017.

Data also shows one in four people in Nyeri suffer an NCD.

More research is needed in Kirinyaga, Embu, Meru and Murang’a to determine why people in these counties were more at risk of cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes and cancer.  

The clergy will also be holding meetings with the Council of Governors to help address the state of county hospitals in an effort to raise the standards of service provision.

This will include ensuring availability of medicine and healthcare providers in health facilities.

The church will also bring on board big pharmaceutical companies like Norvatis to bring medicine that is more affordable by the general population.

“We would like to hold medical camps in partnership with the health facilities and other providers to do screening for early cancer diagnosis.

“It is not the responsibility of government alone to provide healthcare, but it is also not the responsibility of the public to pay because NCDs are so expensive, nobody can afford it,” Kinyanjui said.

The church will also ensure that once someone has been diagnosed with an NCD, they get psychological and psychosocial support. We will also make sure they are connected to a facility that can give high quality care.

The World Health Organisation estimates that, by 2030, deaths from NCDs are likely to increase by 17 per cent globally and by 27 per cent in Africa.

The global health agency has also linked nearly one in five Covid-19 deaths in Africa to diabetes.

“Incidences and mortality from NCDs is rapidly rising. This combined with the prevalence of infectious diseases continues to put a double strain on the healthcare system,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.

“NCDs such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental illness, epilepsy and sickle cell present a threat to human health and development.

"What it means is that our families can easily be impoverished as a result of these diseases,” Kagwe added.

Type 2 diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes, is becoming more prevalent around the world as lifestyles change.

This is spurring an increase in research in Africa, the Arab states, Asia and Europe, in particular, according to original research by UNESCO.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)