The NCD Alliance Nigeria has raised alarm over increasing cases of Non-Communicable Diseases, (NCDs) among Nigerians, calling for government intervention to stop the spread of these diseases in the country.
“The Nigerian government is yet to implement policies against the four major risk factors for the World Health Organisations four main global NCDs, popularly known as four by four,” NCD Alliance said at a workshop it organised recently in Lagos with the aim of strengthening advocacy by civil society and related organisations.
The Alliance recognised the four major NCDs as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and trauma, but warned that trauma could overtake the others in prevalence, if urgent measures were not taken to reduce the level of violence across the country.
Participants at the workshop pointed out that weak surveillance, inadequate funding for NCDs control and prevention, lack of policies/strategic plans of action for risk factors, among others, were the constraints hindering effective tackling of these diseases.
“We recognise the importance of advocacy in entrenching activities towards prevention and control of diseases at all strata – globally, nationally even at community levels,” said Sonny Kuku, president NCD Alliance Nigeria.
“Towards this need, the NCD Alliance Nigeria has played pivotal roles in the past in providing leadership for coordinated action and a united voice on the prevention of NCDs in Nigeria. This can be achieved through effective advocacy and awareness programs organized by relevant stakeholders such as participants gathered here today,” he added.
Speakers at the workshop took turns to present papers on the various NCDs, including cancer, stroke, sickle cell anaemia, maternal and child mortality.
“Unhealthy, physical inactivity, tobacco, harmful use of alcohol and overweight and obesity are part of the factors to be addressed,” said Kingsley Akinroye, executive director, Nigerian Heart Foundation. He noted that growing fast food which contains high intake of salt and sugar had made it impossible to tackle the problem of overweight and obsesity.
Akinroye said that physical inactivity was also the least addressed in Nigeria, noting that it was unaddressed because the environment is not good for physical activity.
He stated that tobacco remained a problem in terms of policy implementations because many of the states were not implementing the tobacco law.
“Almost 6 per cent of Nigerian adults (from ages 15 and above) is categorised as smokers,” he said. If these were put in figures, he said they were more than 4 million, noting that smoking was higher among the youths than in the adults. Harmful use of alcohol is also a very serious risk factor, noted. According to him, the prevalence level is about 35 per cent, but more in men than women.”
Akinroye contended that overweight and obesity were climbing up in the population, noting that the presence of cholesterol was as high as 40 percent in the population.
Ifeoma Okoye, a radiologist, in her presentation on cancer, urged Nigerians to reduce the fear of cancer and go for regular screening, adding that about 26 Nigerian women were still dying of cervical cancer daily.
“Nigerians’ advocacy focus should be on strategies that can create traction in cancer control, scaling up education, changing narratives of research, influence of political will of government and private sector to reduce these disease burdens,” she said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
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