Tackle non-communicable diseases urgently - Physician specialist
A physician specialist in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Professor Francis W. Ofei, has warned that the high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a time bomb that needs to be tackled urgently.
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He said the country was presently focusing on only four types of NCDs - cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and blood pressure (BP) -but according to him if care was not taken, the country would be awoken to the rude shock of other diseases such as mental health disorders, which “we have all turned a blind eye to for many years.”
Prof. Ofei, who is the Dean of the School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, sounded the alarm at the opening of a three-day medical knowledge fiesta organised by the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
“But, while four main types of non-communicable diseases and their shared risk factors are often mentioned, ignoring other less spoken about conditions and health-related topics and neglecting issues such as mental health disorders, visual impairment/blindness, hearing impairment/deafness and oral health, or failing to direct initiatives and interventions towards resolving issues related to ageing and the youth, many of which we have all turned a blind eye to for many years, would be our own doing,” he said.
Medical fiesta
The medical knowledge fiesta, which is the seven in the series, sought to provide a platform for continuous education and knowledge sharing among medical professionals in Ghana and in North America, thereby promoting evidence-based medical practice in the country.
The theme for the fiesta: “Non-communicable Diseases Burden in Ghana: The eye of the crocodile”, brought together medical practitioners from Ghana, Canada, United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA).
Limited knowledge
Prof. Ofei said the limited knowledge of NCDs in the population contributed to late reporting for care, high rates of preventable complications and high costs of treatment.
He added that fully understanding the drivers behind NCDs and developing ways to reverse them, were of fundamental importance in addressing the epidemic.
WHO country profile
Quoting from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) 2014 NCD country profile, Prof. Ofei said NCDs were estimated to account for 42 per cent of total deaths in Ghana, which stood at 210,000 per annum.
He said so great was the challenge posed by NCDs for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals that Heads of State and governments around the world had committed to developing and implementing strategies by the year 2030 to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third through prevention and treatment of major NCDs.
Prof. Ofei indicated that while health promotion and prevention of lifestyle diseases were important aspects for the fight against NCDs, “we need first and foremost to have an idea what the size of the problem is”.
He suggested that population-based studies across the length and breadth of the country must be commissioned and funded by the government, “short of which we cannot develop specific policies and guidelines for prevention, control and management that addresses the challenges at hand”.
Chair
The Dean, School of Medicine, University of Allied Sciences, Prof. Harry Tagbor, who chaired the opening session of the fiesta, said in spite of the cutting-edge medical knowledge in-country, many Ghanaians continued to die each year because they did not receive evidence-based care for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
He also said medical knowledge presented at conferences rarely reached primary care clinicians in remote facilities who were the frontline of patient care.
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