Non-communicable diseases bane in fighting COVID-19
Ghana is doing well in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
But like many other countries, it is not out of the woods yet.
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It has obviously not been spared the ravaging impact of the global pandemic, with the country recording a total of 46,482 cases.
Significantly, out of the number, 45,651 cases have recovered, leaving the actual national burden, representing active cases at 530.
However, the disease has claimed 301 lives in the country as of September 29, 2020.
Global data
The outbreak of COVID-19 last year which quickly sparked like wild fire, infecting people at a fast pace across countries.
This resulted in the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring COVID-19 as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 and since then, millions of people have been infected with over a million lives lost to the disease.
Caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), global data indicates that as of September 29, this year, 33,590,320 people have been infected, while it has claimed 1,007,227 lives.
Co-morbidities
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says 95 per cent of all the COVID-19 related deaths locally are due to co-morbidities, meaning they had other health conditions that complicated their situation leading to death.
Global and national health experts such as the Director of Health Promotion at the GHS, Dr Dacosta Aboagye, has highlighted the global scientific evidence that people with underlying health conditions, predominantly non-communicable diseases (NCDs), are more susceptible to becoming severely ill and dying from COVID-19.
He said NCDs such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were major risk factors for severe disease and mortality in patients with COVID-19.
“These two epidemics are closely connected and act synergistically on morbidity and mortality: people with NCDs are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and death; COVID-19 and NCDs share a common set of underlying risk factors, including deprivation, obesity, old age and ethnicity,” Dr Aboagye said.
NCD
NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, are medical conditions that cannot be passed on from person to person.
They are either chronic or acute and cannot be treated but managed with medicine effectively.
The four main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.
He said NCDs already disproportionately affected low and middle income countries where nearly three quarters of NCD deaths – 32 million – occurred.
“NDCs also last for a long period of time. This is also known as a chronic disease. A combination of genetic, physiological, lifestyle and environmental factors can cause these diseases. While these diseases are incurable, they can be managed with medical treatment and in many cases, preventable through adherence to healthy lifestyle,” he said.
Dr Aboagye said NCDs were closely linked with the burden of COVID-19, exacerbating morbidity and mortality.
He said if much attention was paid to NCDs, COVID-19 deaths would decline.
He said further to behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco; eating unhealthy diets, second-hand smoking, obesity, environmental and socio-economic factors such as air pollution, climate change, trade agreements and aggressive marketing of unhealthy products are accelerating the NCD epidemic.
“These conditions increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Some people are born genetically predisposed to have certain cardiovascular conditions.
Low awareness
Unfortunately, he said, public knowledge regarding NCDs was quite low and that was why the GHS, with support from its partner, PATH, had instituted measures to raise public awareness of NCDs, which he said was basically a lifestyle health condition.
PATH is an international non-profit global health organisation focused on working to accelerate health equity.
“Majority of the deaths that we have recorded in this country came from co-morbidities, underlying conditions; and most of these underlying conditions tend to be the non-communicable diseases; hypertension, diabetes and the others.
“So we certainly have to step up education on these non-communicable diseases with emphasis on diabetes, hypertension, obesity and the cancers,” he said.
He said raising public education would mitigate the impact of a COVID-19 now and in the unforeseen event of a second wave of the pandemic.
He said the GHS was committed to ensuring that no one was left behind in the COVID-19 response was increasing access to NCD services and information in a patient friendly manner.
Advice
Dr Aboagye has, therefore, advised Ghanaians to practise healthy lifestyles to stem the prevalence of NCDs, reduce their vulnerability to COVID-19 and help mitigate the impact of the global pandemic on national COVID-19 response.
He emphasised the need for regular exercises, reduction in alcohol and tobacco intake and eating healthy meals to boost the immune system against COVID-19.
He reiterated that people with underlying non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer had a high risk of developing severe and even fatal COVID-19 and asked that they sought regular health care.
“It is important for them to strictly follow basic protective measures and make sure their chronic diseases are well managed.
“The other area, which health professionals agree could help in narrowing the knowledge gap with regards to NCDs, is through increased communication”.
Neglect
The Chief of PATH, Dr Patience Cofie, said pandemics crippled health systems and compromised provision routine medical care.
She said regardless of the impact of NCDs on COVID-19 prevalence, mortality and morbidity, stakeholders such as governments and healthcare managers had unconsciously directed all attention to COVID-19 at the expense of other public health conditions such as NCD.
She said resources were mainly allocated to enhance emergency care, and were deflected from facilities for non-communicable diseases NCDs including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, chronic respiratory disease, endocrine and metabolic disorders.
“The massive efforts to deal with COVID-19 have also disturbed the regular care often required by patients with NCDs. WHO completed a rapid assessment survey in May, 2020, and found that 75 per cent of countries reported interruptions to NCD services. Among the hardest hit were public health campaigns and NCD surveillance efforts,” she said.
She quoted the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to have said that “Many people who need treatment for diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes have not been receiving the health services and medicines they need since the COVID-19 pandemic began. It’s vital that countries find innovative ways to ensure that essential services for NCDs continue, even as they fight COVID-19”.
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