Preventative measures: Health dept to battle NCDs with awareness

65% of deaths in Pakistan caused by non-communicable diseases, officials told

KARACHI: Sindh is using advertising to spread awareness about non-communicable diseases (NCDs), their effects, prevention and precautionary measures, said provincial health secretary Iftikhar Ahmed Shallwani.

Information about the hazards of smoking and junk food is also being provided to the people, as is information about regular exercise, said the secretary at a meeting at Sindh Secretariat on Tuesday. The spread of cancer, especially breast cancer, is very alarming and a coordinated campaign is needed to tackle the issue. A task force for NCDs is being formed to prepare a comprehensive strategy to deal with the issue, said Shallwani.

He asked for technical assistance from the federal government to review the situation of NCDs in the province. The meeting discussed the situation regarding various NCDs including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and hypertension in Sindh.

The participants of the meeting were informed that 65 per cent of deaths in Pakistan are due to NCDs with cardiovascular diseases making up 25 per cent of these deaths.

The figures are very worrying, according to national health services and regulations federal secretary, Ayub Shaikh, who said the provinces need to work closely with the federal government to ascertain the actual cause of the increase of these diseases in order to develop a viable strategy to reduce these numbers.

He lauded the passing of the mental healthcare bill by the Sindh Assembly and hoped other provinces will follow Sindh's example. He said that the federal government was more than willing to provide help and assistance to the provinces to tackle this hugely important issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2015.