Non-profit organisation Doctors Without Borders, in association with the Eastern Cape Health Department, is tackling the scourge of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, in Butterworth.
The five-year pilot programme will see research conducted on ways in which to address the issue.
Statistics show the Amathole District has a high death rate due to non-communicable diseases.
The organisation believes there is a strong need for intervention in the province.
Access to health services in rural communities remains a challenge. The launch of this initiative aims to promote a healthy eating lifestyle as most communicable diseases are triggered by what one consumes.
Doctors Without Borders believes non-communicable diseases need more attention.
Doctors Without Borders country representative, Camren Mcaravey says, “The hope at the end of the day is to find ways to to address non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. These NCDs haven’t received the airtime they deserve in the past. They are pervasive they are destroying communities and we need to work with the community in order to understand how we can address this.”
This intervention has been highly welcomed.
MEC for Health in the Eastern Cape, Nomakhosazana Meth says, “We are facing a lot of these non-communicable diseases including deaths in the province but working with the partners I think we shall succeed as we speak it so prevalent in the Amathole, Mnquma and Mbashe the numbers of causes of deaths on adults are almost at 50% when you compare to other diseases.”
The department is also making efforts to fill critical vacant posts in order to boost staff morale in delivering quality health care.
