Yeukai Munetsi
Zvishavane- People living with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are calling upon the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to consider them in the upcoming budget and invest more in mitigating risk factors they face.
This follows the lack of response by the responsible Ministry to allocate funds towards NCDs.
Speaking to TellZim News this week, Director for Beat Non- Communicable Diseases Network Zimbabwe, Jacob Ngwenya said investing in NCDs would assist government in reducing costs in treatment options.
“A direct budget allocation towards NCDs is long overdue and the country is already feeling the brunt as seen with disruptions of life saving treatment such as radiotherapy, absence of diagnostic services in public hospitals and the ever ending drug stock outs of life saving drugs.
“An interaction between Covid-19 and NCDs proved to be catastrophic to people living with the condition as they battled severe diseases and contribute between 60 to 90% of all Covid-19 deaths. Investing into NCDs is very essential for future pandemic preparedness,” said Ngwenya.
He went on to describe the NCDs as chronic illnesses that are contributing largely to high death tolls in the world.
“NCDs are usually influenced by physiological, genetic, environmental or behavioural factors and these diseases include cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, mental and neurological, kidney diseases, obesity, and arthritis among other skeletal. Five major causes of NCDs are in health diet, tobacco use and abuse of alcohol as well as air pollution.
“NDCs are diseases that cannot be transmitted from one person to the other due to the fact that they are usually chronic in nature and statistics have shown that 74% of the deaths recorded world over annually are mainly related to NCDs,” he added.
Ngwenya however highlighted that a meaningful conversation with people within the sector is one of the solutions to the NCDs funding that would assist the sector if applied.
“A meaningful consultation with the affected communities has to be done in the early budget formulation processes as this will assure People Living With Non Communicable Diseases’s views and voices are not only captured but holistically considered.
“The sin tax is a corrective measure which seeks to reduce uptake of harmful products at the same time raising funds for NCDs. Impose sin tax on all alcohol products, trans fats, ultra processed foods especially those high in iodine and on fossil fuels,” he said.
