Let us introspect in our everyday habits - Madigele
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday September 21, 2018 14:22
He explained that NCDs including stroke, hypertension, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases causes almost 70% of all deaths worldwide saying that they claim more lives than HIV, TB and Malaria combined. He said they were considered a threat to global development. “Botswana like other countries has a large burden of NCDs, given dual burden of rapid development as well as high prevalence of HIV which is associated with some NCDs.
“According to Non Communicable Diseases risk factors survey, (Steps survey) of 2014 in Botswana, 29% of the adult population had hypertension, five percent had diabetes and many were not aware that they had the diseases. 18% adults smoke, five percent consume alcohol at harmful levels and 30% are obese,” he said.
He added that over 70% of breast cancers were diagnosed at late stage where nothing could be done. In light of this concerning backdrop, he said his ministry aimed to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by major NCDs and their risk factors. He however pointed out that the availability of services for NCDs were limited, tended to be centralised and focused on cure rather than also including prevention and early detection.
Despite this, Madigele pointed out that the country had made some progress with addressing those gaps. He said the ministry’s approach emphasised prevention (leveraging the primary care platform and multi-sectoral participation), early detection and linkage to high quality care for those affected.
He added that MoH&W developed NCDs multi-sectoral strategy that gives each sector in this country a platform to address NCDs. For his part, the former president, Festus Mogae, who was recently appointed to the WHO Independent High Level Commission on NCDs, said globally, NCDs claim the lives of more than 40 million people each year.
He pointed out that that number almost so vast as to be incomprehensible. “It is roughly the population of larger African countries like Sudan or Algeria, and nearly 20 times the size of our won country Botswana.
“NCDs sound technical, but these are illnesses that we all know, and have likely been touched by in some way, shape or form. They affect people in all countries across all continents. Access to treatment and services varies widely depending on where in the world you live,” he said.
He pointed out that unless they embed and expand NCDs within healthy systems and ensure Universal health coverage, the NCD crisis was set to escalate dramatically. In the African region, Mogae said countries were seeing rapid rises in the number of cases of those conditions. He emphasised that without further action, the burden of related deaths was projected to increase by almost a third by 2030.