21 Oct 2024

Non Communicable Disease (NCDs) have become a leading cause of mortality worldwide with devastating impacts.

This, Ministry of Health spokesperson, Dr Christopher Nyanga, said in an interview, was despite the fact that NCDs are preventable and manageable with the right interventions

Dr Nyanga said every life taken by NCDs was significant, urging  all to turn the tide in the fight against such diseases. He stated that the in-patient deaths due to NCDs in 2020 were hypertension, chronic kidney diseases, congestive heart failure, stroke and cervical cancers.

He said the diseases were among the top 10 causes of in-patient deaths in Botswana.

“While these diseases may lack the viral immediacy of communicable diseases, their slow, insidious nature makes them dangerous, as they creep up on individuals, offering no clear signs until it is too late,” he said.

He said communicable disease were largely preventable through modification of behavioural risk factors such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, use of tobacco and harmful use of alcohol. 

He advised people to got for screening for early detection of NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers.

Dr Nyanga  indicated that prevention often depended on external factors, adding that it took a collective effort to fight NCDs.

“There is need for multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement to beat NCDs,” he noted.

He pointed out that significant strides had been made, but more still needed to be done to attain the SDG 3.4 by 2030. Explaining the SDG 3.4, he said it aimed to reduce by one third premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment as well as  promotion of mental health and well-being.

Dr Nyanga further said Ministry of Health had made strides in combating NCDs by collaborating with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to raise awareness on the diseases, researching to help inform policies and interventions, training health workers and decentralising and integrating of NCDs into primary health care, including availing free medications to ensure access to quality treatment.

Dr Nyanga said statistics showed that the working class and the elderly were the most hard hit by NCDs. He said it was estimated that the probability of dying due to NCDs between the ages of 30 and 70 years in Botswana was 20 per cent.

He said NCDs often started at an early age stage, explaining that  the risk factors developed during childhood and adolescence but they manifested in older age.

“Conditions like heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers are more prevalent in older adults but their underlying causes can be traced back to early habits and lifestyle choices,” he said

Dr Nyanga called upon Batswana to fight against NCDs as they often resulted in chronic suffering and diminished the quality of life because patients grappled with extended treatments, hospitalisation and financial strains as well as reduced productivity. ends