The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged the EAC member states to increase funding towards the fight against rising cases of non-communicable diseases (NCD).
WHO Kenya country representative Dr Custodia Mandlhate told a health forum in Nairobi at the weekend that most of the region’s health budgets have prioritised the elimination of infectious diseases such as HIV.
“The incidences and mortality from NCDs is rapidly rising resulting in a double burden of disease and this situation is further straining the existing the health systems,” Mandlhate said during the launch of the Kenya’s national NCD strategy and community health NCD module.
The main NCDs include cardivascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.
In 2014, UN General Assembly members committed to setting national NCDs targets by the end of 2015.
Mandlhate said that the high rates of death and disease are a reflection of inadequate investment in cost-effective NCD interventions.
NCDs impede efforts to alleviate poverty and threaten the acheivement of national development goals.
“This is because the cost of treating these conditions can be devastating both to the individual and the country,” she said.
Kenya’s cabinet secretary of health James Macharia said that NCDs are no longer illness of the wealthy.
Macharia noted that the rising burden of NCDs is largely attributable to shared behavioural risk factors that are influenced by economic transition and rapid urbanisation.
Africa Time
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