- NCDs account for more than 50 per cent of total hospital admissions and over 55 per cent of hospital deaths.
- The diseases include cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.a
Image: FELIX ASOHA
Kenya, like most developing countries, is facing a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
According to the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), NCDs account for more than 50 per cent of total hospital admissions and over 55 per cent of hospital deaths.
The diseases include cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
John Gikonyo who is chair of the Caucus of People Living with NCDs told the Star on Thursday that (NCDs) are projected to increase by another 17% by 2025 if appropriate measures will not be put in place to address the current crisis caused by the diseases.
"NCDs are a pandemic in slow motion, it has been going on, it is going on, things will get worse and that is why we are saying let us make sure that NCDs are properly controlled," Gikonyo said.
Gikonyo urged the Government to put more funding into preventing NCDs and invest in primary healthcare to prevent diseases.
"If you go and find 100 patients in any hospital, 50 of them will have been admitted because of an NCD. You can imagine in two years time if we experience a worsening situation by any percentage," Gikonyo stated.
He said modifiable risk factors for NCDs are tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and overweight/obesity).
Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that NCDs are the leading cause of death globally, killing more people each year than all other causes combined.
Much of the human and social impact caused each year by NCD-related deaths could be averted through well-understood, cost-effective and feasible interventions.
Of the 57 million deaths that occurred globally in 2008, 36 million –almost two-thirds– were due to NCDs, comprising mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases.
Recognizing the devastating social, economic and public health impact of NCDs, in September 2011, world leaders adopted a political declaration containing strong commitments to address the global burden of NCDs and gave several assignments to the WHO to help support country efforts
In 2019, the World Health Assembly extended the WHO Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of NCDs from 2013–2020 to 2030 and called for the development of an Implementation Roadmap from 2023 to 2030 to accelerate progress on preventing and controlling NCDs.
The Roadmap supports actions to achieve a set of nine global targets with the greatest impact towards the prevention and management of NCDs.