A medical practitioner, Dr Vetty Agala, has advised Nigerians to adopt healthy lifestyle to prevent Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs).
Agala, the President of Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Rivers chapter, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to her, NCDs are largely preventable to and depend a lot on lifestyle.
“It is a call to action for individuals, families, communities and the government to take responsibility to stem this tide,’’ she said.
NCDs are those that are not caused by a disease agent or germ and cannot usually be transmitted from one person to the other although there may be genetic and familial factors that can link people with close family relations.
These include diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, cancers and injuries from road traffic accidents.
Agala, however, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) report on NCDs should be a cause for serious concern even for us in Nigeria.
The WHO, in its 2019 Global Health Estimates stated that NCDs made up seven of the world’s top 10 causes of death, a sharp increase from two decades ago.
The UN health agency stated that heart disease remains the number one killer while diabetes and dementia are among top 10 of NCDs killing people globally.
Agala, said WHO had presented a global picture in the report and at that level from the trends they had observed between 2000 and 2019, ischaemic heart disease tops the chart.
“In most developing countries, the top causes of death include respiratory diseases (pneumonias), diseases of the circulatory system (ischaemic heart diseases, stroke), low birth weight, diarrhoea, measles, injuries, malnutrition and cancers (neoplasms).
“These conditions represent diseases of poverty and affluence and circulatory systems diseases still top the chart as the commonest non-communicable diseases causing deaths.’’
She, however, said there was a rising disease burden of NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, sickle cell disease, coronary artery disease, stroke, obesity, hypertension and mental health disorders in the country.
“Nigeria is listed as one of the countries worse hit by deaths from these NCDs.
“For us in Nigeria and Africa at large there has been a double burden or even triple burden of disease if you include malnutrition and poverty.
“Infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other respiratory infections/pneumonias, and malaria with diarrhoea are still top killers of the vulnerable populations.
“I agree with the report from the WHO because it is scientific and from observation of trends in the last two decades.
“As innovative technology improves and solutions to tackle communicable diseases come up, there is a steady decline of communicable diseases even in our clime.’’
Agala said the burden of deaths caused by NCDs could be reduced by coming up with programmes to address the diseases.
“The review by Faisal Mohammad et al also stated that Nigerians will continue to die unnecessarily from preventable conditions if there are no proper programmes designed to address these problems.
“Just as the Director General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out, there is an urgent need to scale up preventive, diagnosis and treatment services for NCDs.
“There is need to strengthening Primary Health Care (PHC) system because that is the surest way to go.
“At the level of PHC health promotion and education with screening for NCDs can be done to engender early detection and treatment or referral where necessary to reduce disease burden and complications. (NAN)
