Participants at the fifth and final annual Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) symposium have called for a multi-sectoral strategy to control Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
The Multi-sectoral strategy encompasses the numerous public sectors that influence or relate to NCDs, including health, education, trade, agriculture, transportation, energy, urban planning, and sport.
Calls for a multi- sectoral approach surfaced at a press conference held during the fifth and final Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Symposium.
Addressing journalists, Holly Wong, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs in the US Department of Health and Human Services said NCDs cannot be handled in isolation.
“The issue of NCDs cannot be addressed by medical departments alone. There is need for a multi-sectoral approach in which transportation services, agriculture and housing are include in the fight. Every sector is vital so as to have a much broader solution,” she said.
Eric Goosby, who led the Obama Administration’s efforts on HIV/AIDS echoed the above sentiments when he said, there is a shift in disease prediction.
“We are going through a moment where prediction of diseases dominating is shifting from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases. NCDs will be the main killer,” he said.
He also said, “We need to prepare our medical health centres and the medical delivery system.
Goosby assured the public that MEPI will be well equipped to tackle NCDs.
“NCDs require the same resources we use on infectious diseases, so we are keen to announce that we will be able to fight NCDs,” said Goosby.
Speaking at the same event, Dr James Gita Hakim, the principal investigator of the Zimbabwe MEPI program said there is need to prioritise NCDs.
“We have been grappling with infectious diseases, so non communicable diseases have not been prioritized in terms of both prevention and rehabilitation. We need to broaden our thinking and realise that non communicable diseases are fatal and have to be prioritized,” he said.
The symposium is running under the theme: Sustaining MEPI Achievements: Leadership built, lessons learnt and partnerships created towards an AIDS- free generation.
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are diseases that are non-infectious or non-transmissible. NCDs can refer to chronic diseases which last for long periods of time and progress slowly. NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.
