The government has been urged to give more attention to non-communicable diseases to avert further deaths resulting from the disease.

The health stakeholders want the government to increase its commitment in the fight against Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (heart disease, stroke, obesity) and chronic respiratory diseases.

They claim that the government has over the years directed its efforts in advocating for communicable diseases like Hiv/Aids, Ebola, tuberculosis and flu while neglecting the NCDs.

The health stakeholders who met this September during the Non-Communicable Disease Research Program (NCDPR) consultative forum held in Nairobi, further called for thorough research on NCDs to enable design of policies to help curb the diseases.

NCDPR chairman, Mr Samuel  Gathera said that currently in Kenya around 80% of NCDs deaths are preventable hence the need for advocacy and strategies to avail information to the people.

He said that this could only be achieved if the government was willing to engage with health stakeholders through research and funding to halt further deaths that could be prevented.

“Today non-communicable diseases like cancer are turning to be a major killer than communicable diseases like Hiv/Aids, government should be aware of this phenomenon and from now hence forth should start giving attention to the NCDs” Mr Gathera said.

He further noted that NCDs are caused by behaviours such as smoking, alcoholism, sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diets that can be changed through fostered collaborative partnerships.

Non-communicable diseases refer to those diseases that cannot be spread from one person to the other.

According to Researcher Lydia Kaduka, it is worrying because most of the affected people by the NCDs are the youths.

She attributed this to “high levels of junk food intake, excessive consumption and smoking which result in raised blood pressure, overweight and raised blood cholesterol.”

Charles Mwandawiro, Deputy Director of Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) said that the country should deal with the increasing cases of NCDs if it is to achieve vision 2030.

“We need to start deal with the rising cases of NCDs, we cannot achieve vision 2030 if the diseases continue claiming lives especially the young, the 10% growth cannot be achieved at this rate,” Mr Mwandawiro said.

He further called on the government to provide funds for research and prioritize on supporting NCDs.

“Hiv/Aids campaigns get billions of shillings hence we urge the government and the stakeholders to fund NCDs  campaigns,” Mr Mwandawiro said.

Waihenya Mwangi who represented the Ministry of Health and Public Sanitation said that the ministry is experiencing burden of diseases but assured government’s commitment in addressing the issue.

He called on the health stakeholders to provide the government with information to approve funding.

“Ministry of Health will undertake measures to deal with NCDs, we have so far put legislative measures like Cancer Prevention and Control Act 2012,” said Mr Mwangi.

He continued: “we encourage and support research in best preventive and curative practices, the ministry requires to see evidence in order to allocate funds for a particular campaign.”