Domestic resources needed to curb lifestyle diseases, says MUHAS heart specialist
Dar es Salaam. There is a pressing need for Tanzania to focus on mobilising domestic financial resources to curb the increasing trend of lifestyle diseases , says a specialist in heart diseasesDr Pilly Chillo from the from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas).
World Health Organization (WHO) warns that by 2030, up to 52 million lives would be lost globally due to the diseases also known as Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and heart complications.
Against the backdrop of the WHO projections, Tanzania is left with less than a year to meet its objectives for the 2016-2020 second National Strategic and Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs.
Speaking ahead of Muhas’ fourth University-wide Symposium during which experts will discuss how to tackle NCDs in Tanzania, Dr Chillo, a senior lecturer at Muhas, emphasizes on the use of low-cost interventions to prevent the diseases. NCDs are widely known to be expensive to treat.
Dr Chillo says, “Although funding for [initiatives targeting] NCDs is not enough at the moment, we need to do something as a country by focusing on prevention. We can do this by mobilizing local resources.”
Over three years ago the Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan launched a physical fitness drive to encourage every Tanzanian to cultivate the habit of doing regular physical exercises in order to control NCDs. It was inspired by the theme: “Afyayako Mtaji Wako.”
Further, the government said it was now banking on individuals’ participation in the fitness drive to ensure good health through prevention, a strategy that WHO says is cost-effective.
During the coming Muhas symposium, to be held in September 25, Dr Chillo is expected to join other experts in presenting findings on the current trend of NCDs, with focus on heart disease and chronic kidney failure.
The symposium, branded by the theme: Walking together in the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, will bring together researchers and clinicians on NCDs, to discuss what lies ahead in the efforts to combat the diseases known to affect people from all walks of life in Tanzania.
“We need to educate people who have adopted westernized lifestyle behaviors which are risk factors for NCDs. Most people in villages are known to live lives that aren’t risky as those in urban areas. It’s high time we encouraged this across the country,’’ she suggests during an interview with The Citizen.
A countrywide survey that was carried out by the government in 2012 shows that people across regions were increasingly getting more exposed to risk factors for the NCDs while the cost of treating the diseases is high.
“…current tobacco users (15.9%), current alcohol drinkers (29.3%), overweight and obese (34.7%), raised cholesterol (26%) and raised triglycerides (33.8%),’’ reads part of it, as embedded in the National NCDs Strategic Plan II (2016-2020).
Cost of treatment
By the year 2030, the cost of treating diabetes is projected to rise to $16.2 billion in Eastern Africa, namely Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. This is an increase from $ 3.8 billion in 2015, says a study by Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission.
Yet, the government of Tanzania has been spending a huge sum of money on treating heart patients abroad. But, after investing in specialized cardiac treatment, Tanzanians ate spending less on heart treatment locally.
According to data obtained from JKCI, as of July 2017, the number of Tanzanian patients who were being referred abroad for specialized treatment of heart diseases had dropped by 95.5 per cent—from 159 patients in 2012 to only 4 patients in 2016.
