Non-communicable diseases may kill 52million in Africa by 2030

Experts have stressed the need for the federal government to initiate vertical programmes for the control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country.
They say Africa will record the biggest casualties from NCDs in the next one decade with about 52 million estimated deaths by 2030.
The experts stated this in Lagos during this year’s annual Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) scientific conference.
Commissioner for Health, Delta State, Dr. Nicholas Ezinge, said most developing countries have always focused on communicable diseases with scarce resources.
He said about 36 million people die yearly from NCDs, a number that is estimated to increase by 2030.
According to him, NCDs were initially associated with developed nations and were regarded as diseases of the rich. However, the burden of NCDs in developing countries has been showing some progressive increase over the past two decades with an estimated 80 per cent increase of the four main types of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes in Africa.
Ezinge noted that with the occurrence of NCDs in low and middle income countries like Nigeria, if the trend is maintained by 2020, NCDs will contribute to 7 out of every 10 deaths in developing countries thereby killing 52 million people by 2030.
He said this why it is urgent for Nigeria to implement the recommendations of the United Nations 2011 summit on NCDs to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.
He stated that the same underlying social conditions such as poverty and unsanitary environments are associated with the onset of both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Director General, NIMR, Prof Innocent Ujah lamented that institutions and policies that support prevention and control of both diseases categories currently reflect partioning.
He said the limited alignment may not help in the nation’s efforts at addressing the problems because the diseases share common features such long term care needs and overlapping high risk populations.