Domestic resources needed to curb lifestyle diseases
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 diseases, Dr Pilly Chillo, from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas).
World Health Organisation (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 the Muhas’ fourth University-wide Dissemination 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.”
During the symposium, to be held on September 25, Dr Chillo is expected to join other experts in presenting findings on the current trend of the NCDs, with focus on heart disease and chronic kidney failure.
Branded by the theme: Walking together in the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, the symposium 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.
