02 Mar 2015

The Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele, has urged Batswana to form health sporting clubs in order to promote healthy living and address negative behaviours that affect their health.

Officiating at the SADC Healthy Lifestyle Day in Shakawe on February 27, the minister said such clubs could also expand their scope of responsibilities to assist those who were already affected by cancers, diabetes and stroke within their communities.

He said such communal undertakings were essential in preventing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), and if all could participate, the work could become easier to tackle, no matter how challenging it might be.

Dr Madigele stressed the need for the community to make a strong resolution for a healthy life style and resolve to reduce risk factors of NCDs today to prevent them from developing tomorrow.

Turning to the day, he said it had been set aside by SADC members for reminding and educating the communities on the ever increasing problem of non-communicable diseases and how to prevent and control them.

Also, he said, it was meant for people to reflect on the efforts that have been made to address the negative impact of NCDs in the society with a view to continuing to improve and strengthen them for a positive impact.

He also informed the gathering that SADC members continued to use the long term theme since 2013 as the campaign focus for prevention and control of NCDs so as to ensure that communities act.

Dr Madigele said it challenged communities to realise that their actions and choices were the key to halting the epidemic.

Furthermore, he said most of the NCDs such as cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases were driven by the lifestyle choices and the leading ones being poor diet, obesity, lack of physical activity, excessive alcohol consumption and tobacco use.

Currently, he said NCDs kill about 36 million people yearly globally and the burden continued to escalate, particularly in low and middle income countries, Botswana included.

He said more and more people were diagnosed with different NCDs every day, putting a huge strain in current health care systems, which weree already overstretched.

The Assistant Minister noted that in 2014, NCDs risk factor survey was carried and preliminary results continue to show that much has not changed with regards to people’s behavior and attitudes towards risk factors. 

He said therefore, all people needed to introspect and make decisions knowing that ultimately their health outcomes will be the results of their actions and attitudes towards their health.

World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Dr Felicitas Zawaira stressed the need for those already affected by NCDs to take medicines as prescribed by health workers.

Dr Zawaira said those who were not yet affected should heed advice in order to reduce illness, disability and death and contribute to better health outcomes. 

Giving a vote of thanks, the Okavango Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Bagalatia Arone requested the government to re-visit the syllabus and include health education at a young stage in schools for better understanding. ENDS