Sunyani, June 22, GNA – A geoscientist, Professor Emmanuel Arhin, has reiterated the need for stakeholders to make collaborative effort to prevent the increasing level of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to minimise their imminent socio-economic impact on the lives of Ghanaians.
Prof. Arhin of the Department of Geographic Science, School of Geo-Sciences, University of Energy and Natural Sciences (UENR) warned NCDs threatened the progress being made towards achieving the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals which included the target of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third.
He said “we can build hospitals across the country where people can have access to healthcare, but if we don’t have control over the sources of the NCDs, then I think we will not be doing a good service to ourselves as a nation”.
Prof. Arhin was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani, said the rapid rise in NCDs was bound to impede poverty reduction initiatives in low-income countries, particularly by increasing household costs associated with health care costs.
”Vulnerable and socially-disadvantaged people fall sick and die sooner than people of higher social positions, while in low-resource settings, health-care costs for NCDs quickly drain household resources”, he stressed.
Prof. Arhin said the exorbitant costs of NCDs, including treatment which was often lengthy and expensive combined with the loss of income, forced millions of people into poverty.
According to him “the prevalence of major chronic NCDs and their risk factors have increased over time and contributed significantly to Ghana’s disease burden”.
He said conditions like hypertension, stroke and diabetes affected young people, the aged, those in the urban and rural areas as well as wealthy and poor people, implying that the high cost of care drove the poor further into poverty.
Prof. Arhin said besides limited knowledge and awareness about NCDs, there was weak health care system and lack of policies to guide chronic diseases which were contributing to the increasing risks of morbidity and mortality in the country.
He said chronic diseases constituted a public health and developmental problem that should be of urgent concern not only to the Health Ministry and Ghana Health Service but all stakeholders.
Prof. Arhin said “to minimise the occurrence of NCDs, stakeholders must map out and identify areas in the country with high concentration of disease-causing elements.
“Such areas are then noticed and controlled with community members advised about the dangers and by so doing peoples’ awareness would be awaken on why NCDs have become common in recent times”, he said.
Prof. Arhin said NCDs did not only affect the state of one’s health, but also retarded development because sick people lacked the needed strength to work and contribute significantly to achieve the developmental goals of the country.
GNA