Dar es Salaam. Medical doctors are now appealing to the general public to shun junk food and undertake physical exercises.They are also requesting the government to step up efforts in fighting and controlling the little-known but deadly non-communicable diseases.The doctors note that the government has directed full emphasis on communicable diseases at the expense of the lifestyle diseases.
“As Tanzanian doctors, we are deeply concerned with the changing pattern and we feel ill-equipped to confront escalating NCDs…we advise that more efforts be directed into research and specialised personnel training on NCDs. We need to begin offering individual and mass education to our general population to adopt healthy lifestyles in an attempt to curb these diseases,” said Dr Pashal Ruggajo from the Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam.
They have also advised on the importance of improved screening programmes for early NCD detection and treatment for the sake of the unlucky ones who have crossed the prevention stage.
“At the moment, there is a severe shortage of health personnel and equipment to deal with NCD-related diseases. It is very clear that our health sector is seriously overwhelmed by the magnitude of lifestyle diseases,” noted Dr Benjamin Myovelwa, also from Muhimbili Hospital.Delayed diagnosis of NCDs such as diabetes has seen some people being amputated and others even becoming impotent.
Left untreated, diabetes can also lead to cardiovascular diseases, blindness and kidney failure.
In the world today, half a billion people, about 12 per cent of the world’s population, are considered obese, says the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The health experts argue that Tanzanians have gotten carried away by ‘life’s comforts’ that they have long forgotten to engage in physical exercises, a condition that has necessitated the prevalence of NCDs.
“Working out now and then as well as avoiding junk food would help in reducing the problem,” observed the physician.
The demographic pattern for NCDs is said to be changing rapidly whereby in the past there was a general inclination towards older males but current trends show an overlap between sex and age groups as a result of adopting inactive and harmful lifestyles even among females and young males.
WHO adds that the probability of dying from an NCD between the ages of 30 and 70 is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.
In Tanzania, that probability is between 30-40 per cent. The WHO figures show that out of 100,000 people, 745 are dying from NCDs in the country, compared to 782 deaths caused by communicable diseases and 120 from injuries.
By Edward Qorro
The Citizen
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