New Disease Burden for Poor Countries
The Nation, Malawi
Lilongwe, Malawi — As the world, especially poor countries such as Malawi, celebrate their achievements, a new monster is breeding. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are said to be on the rise in developing countries, threatening to overtake infectious diseases by 2030.
Diabetes, hypertension or blood pressure and heart conditions have for the past decade been associated with the rich and affluent, making the disease more of a status condition for the well-to-do than serious health challenges.
This is confirmed by the absence of serious government interventions and the high cost of medication for such conditions, as compared to prices of infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea and others.
Politically, people raise all sorts of questions when a mother dies during childbirth due to an infectious disease, whereas for a woman to die of breast or cervical cancer seems to be acceptable despite the figures rising across the continent.
Dr. Sumi Mehta, senior technical manager for the Global Alliance for Clean Cook stoves, says up to 10 percent of lung cancers in the world are caused by smoke that comes from cooking.
“Cooking is supposed to be a very happy occasion but people in poor countries use energy which puts their lives at risk,” says Dr. Mehta, who works under the United Nations Foundation seeking to introduce 150 million clean cook stoves across the world. Tanzania and India have already started the project.
Smoking, mainly from tobacco, contributes to many cardiovascular, respiratory and lung conditions that it is estimated that by 2030, it will be among the leading cause of death in poor countries overtaking Aids and other conditions.
Vince Willmore, vice-president for communications at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in the US, says tobacco alone will kill 8 million people by 2030 and smoking has been scientifically proven to cause 15 types of cancer including lung, mouth, throat, bladder, pancreas, kidney and stomach while it also contributes to heart diseases and severe asthma attacks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that of 56 million global deaths in 2008, 36 million or 63 percent were due to non-communicable diseases and global health body projects such as deaths will reach 52 million by 2030.
Unfortunately, a global epidemic of such proportion is overlooked mainly as it is a result of development such as urbanization and globalization of trade and product marketing especially tobacco, food and alcohol which are some of the risk factors for such diseases.
Today, Africa has the highest rates of blood pressure. Many women are dying of cancer and young people‘s lives are being shortened by other chronic conditions.
“Most poor countries are already struggling to manage HIV and AIDS, malaria and diarrhea and the increase in income levels will see many people being affected by non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart conditions and cancer,” notes Nathan Grey, Vice-President of the American Cancer Society.
Grey said it was important that global political leaders come together and develop interventions that would include increasing access to essential medicines, diagnostic and palliative care for those that are affected by the new disorders.
While it was difficult to find conditions of diabetes, blood pressure, heart and cancer 10 years ago, economic development including increased consumption of tobacco, food, inactivity due to lack of exercises and other lifestyles are creating conducive room for increased cases of such diseases.
This, however according to Professor David Bloom from World Economic Forum and Harvard School of Public Health, estimates that the cost of mitigating NCDs might hit as high as $35 trillion if left unchecked now.
“The challenge is that poor families who have a member in their family with any of the stated conditions use their little resources on expensive drugs and the long period of the condition makes them poorer,” he observes.
He said research among global business indicates that NCDs have been seen to be among the risk factors that would affect the conduct of business in the next two decades if action is not taken now.
But not all hope is lost, as there are preventable strategies that countries can adopt while strengthening capacity of their health care systems to start assisting poor people who have such diseases.
According to WHO: “Putting smoke-free workplaces and public places, warnings about the dangers of tobacco, comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, restricting access to retail alcohol, enforcing ban on alcohol advertising, reducing sugar and salt content in packages foods are some of the preventative strategies.”
Public awareness, especially to the young generation about physical inactivity and diet, are also crucial preventive strategies that can reduce the cases of those to be affected by NCDs.
As they say, a stitch in time saves two.
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