According to Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Health, rising cases of cancers, diabetes, epilepsy and sickle cell disease, known as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), particularly in young people are contributing to a decrease of a third in Kenyan household incomes.
In July this year, the country embarked on a five-year national strategic plan to reduce NCDs with the aim of reducing premature deaths by a third.
The plan recommends strengthening and widening public-private partnerships to combat NCDs, using community-based interventions such as screening at community level for early diagnosis and training community health volunteers to sensitize people on dangers of risk factors such as alcoholism and tobacco use, and establishing a national regulatory framework to promote healthy diets.
Advocacy Action – Do you have a strategy or plan for reducing NCDs? Would target setting help?
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