17 Oct 2022

Botswana World Health Organisation (WHO) country representative, Dr Josephine Namboze has urged Batswana to commit to the organisation ‘best buys’ as a recommended intervention of the prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

Speaking during the Walk for Life campaign grand finale on Saturday in Gaborone, Dr Namboze said Batswana should make a decision to become physically active in an effort to beat Non-Communicable Diseases.

She said Non-Communicable Diseases took a terrible health and economic toll on the country, nevertheless saying prevention measures could save lives.

She said ‘best buys’ to be invested on included increase on physical activity, stating that it did not cost a thing to take a health walk every day.

Dr Namboze said among the ‘best buys’ was investing into reducing tobacco and harmful alcohol use, making diets more healthy and better managing various diseases.

She stated that with such strategic investments, Botswana would reduce a significant amount of Non-Communicable Diseases burden and change the disease trajectory as well as deliver significant health and economic gains.

She said if action was not adopted, Non-Communicable Diseases would continue to be a significant threat to global health, adding that adopting the ‘best buys’ meant an investment in a healthy future.

“The Walk for Life campaign should not be a one-time thing, but a start of a habit, make sure you take a five kilometre walk per day,” she said.

Dr Namboze highlighted that unhealthy diet rich in saturated fats and refined sugars as well as low in vegetables and fruits led to intermediate physiological factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and raised blood glucose or diabetes, adding that those risk factors ultimately contributed to cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic lung diseases and diabetes, which resulted in deaths.

She said Non-Communicable Diseases were not typically passed from one person through an infectious pathogen, saying those health conditions that had become the leading killers of humans globally, claiming 41 million lives each year, could be reversed by adopting the World Health Organisation ‘best buys’.   ENDS