Kenya launches plan to tackle lifestyle diseases amid COVID-19

2021-07-28 01:56:24 GMT2021-07-28 09:56:24(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

NAIROBI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ministry of Health said Tuesday it launched a strategic plan to help prevent and control non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which are linked to a higher toll of COVID-19 fatalities.

Mercy Mwangangi, chief administrative secretary in the Ministry of Health said that the current prevalence of lifestyle diseases is worrying since NCD diseases kill 46 percent of Kenyans every year.

"The development of the NCD strategic plan is informed by the need to strengthen a comprehensive multi-sectoral response to the increasing NCD burden," Mwangangi said during the launch in Nairobi.

She noted that the launch of the strategic plan is an effort to halt and reverse the alarming trends.

The official attributed the rising burden of NCDs to adoption of unhealthy lifestyles including tobacco use, consumption of unhealthy diets, insufficient physical activity and harmful use of alcohol.

Mwangangi revealed that it is unfortunate that NCDs in Kenya are now occurring at younger ages and affecting those in the productive years of life.

Mwangangi said that the current infection trend shows that people aged 40 and below that translates to 53 percent have been diagnosed with NCDs while those aged 40 and above make up 47 percent.

She said that with over half of the NCD burden occurring to individuals aged less than 40 years and gravely affecting the most socioeconomically disadvantaged, Kenya is putting emphasis on population wide prevention and control measures.

The official observed that Kenya is experiencing a transition in its disease burden from predominantly communicable diseases to a rapidly rising burden of NCDs.

According to the ministry of health, approximately 39 percent of deaths in the country are as a result of NCDs, up from 27 percent in 2014, while it is projected that deaths from NCDs will increase by 55 percent.

Mwangangi noted that COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated health outcomes for people living with NCDs as they developed complications and deaths amongst COVID-19 patients with NCDs.

She said that the unfavorable health outcomes were compounded by the disruption of essential services witnessed during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strategic plan 2021/22-2025/26 comes at a time when there has been a marked increase in NCDs such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, mental illnesses, asthma, sickle cell disease and injuries. Enditem

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