Medics warn of upsurge in diet-linked diseases
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1 ... index.html
By MIKE MWANIKI
Posted Thursday, February 5 2009 at 19:44
A two-day meeting opened in Kampala Thursday with doctors sounding an alert over an increase in non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
Speaking at the forum, medics said the non-communicable diseases, which were previously affecting older people most, were now increasingly affecting younger people aged between 40 to 45 years in the region.
The meeting is organised by the Aga Khan University, Uganda’s Health ministry and the World Health Organisation.
A senior consultant physician, Dr Silver Bayendeka, said although regional countries lacked data on the diseases, they were “sitting on a time bomb”.
Dr Bayendeka said: “For instance, for every single patient diagnosed with diabetes, four are left behind.”
“That is data we have from small studies. But diabetes is serious. And without mincing words, we are sitting on a time bomb.”
According to Dr James Sekajugo, the principal medical officer in charge of non-communicable disease control in the ministry, a considerable number of people are dying of NCDs and blaming it on witchcraft or some other causes.
Signs and symptoms
“So many people are dying of chronic diseases such as cancer but so many people are not aware of the signs and symptoms. This situation is not only in Uganda, but in most countries of Africa,” Dr Sekajugo told journalists.
Statistics at the Uganda Heart Institute, for example, show a threefold increase on the diseases in a period of just five years. The institute registered 1,800 out patients in 2002, and this figure grew to 5,300 in 2005.
The admissions were 199 in 2002, growing to 604 in 2005. Those who got operated were 132 in 2001 but this went up to 186 in 2005.
However, in a bid to tackle the growing problem, Uganda is to embark on the first ever baseline NCDs risk factor survey.
“We are going to find out how much people are exercising, what kind of diets people are eating, how many cigarettes they are smoking,” Dr Sekajugo disclosed.
“Once we have all that data, we shall now have a baseline that this is how sick our population is. From that data, we shall then design interventions. And then after five years, we shall find out whether our interventions have worked.”
The president of the Aga Khan University, Mr Firoz Rasul, said as a contribution to tackling the new challenge, the institution was expanding it’s presence in East Africa.
A medical college
“We already have a teaching hospital in Nairobi which we are expanding with the building of a heart and cancer centre in response to this need to serve the people of east Africa,” said Mr Rasul.
“We are also setting up a faculty of health sciences and a medical college where we will train doctors and nurses. And the nurses will be trained in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania to help deal with these diseases.”
