Dr Jacob Akuamoah-Boateng, Medical Director of Megavest Medical Centre, has suggested the need for Ghana to adopt a comprehensive approach in addressing the national non-communicable health problems.

He said one of the most important mechanisms for this is the raising of public awareness about the diseases for early detection and timely treatment from primary healthcare approach. He said the health insurance coverage should be expanded to provide universal access to essential non-communicable diseases interventions.

Dr Akuamoah-Boateng also the Chief Executive Officer of MAB Group of Companies, made the suggestion when he interacted with a number of people who undertook a three-hour health walk in Accra on the theme: “Kicking Non-communication Diseases.” It was aimed at bringing to the fore the relocation of the Megavest Medical Centre from Point ‘4’ at North Kaneshie to Darkuman, behind the Police Station.

Other activities included clean-up exercise, National Health Insurance registration and renewal, free screening of tuberculosis, malaria and blood pressure.

Dr Akuamoah-Boateng said: “As we continue to hear good news about the future prospects of communicable diseases like HIV and AIDS, the opposite is the case for non-communicable diseases because according to the World Health Organisation recent report, there is the possibility of ending the AIDS epidemic by the 2030.

He said an estimated 80 per cent of the four main types of non-communicable diseases - cardio vascular, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney failures, which were “diseases of the rich” are now occurring in low and middle income countries including Ghana and by far the leading cause of deaths in the world.

He said the future dangers are that if the current trend is maintained by 2020, the non-communicable diseases would be attributed to seven deaths out of 10 in developing countries and would be killing 52 million people annually worldwide by 2030.

Dr Akuamoah-Boateng explained that a non-communicable disease is a medical condition or a disease which is by definition a non-infectious and non- transmissible between persons. “They may be chronic disease of long duration and slow progression or they may result in more rapid death such as some types of sudden stroke or heart attack,” he stressed.

He attributed the causes of non-communicable diseases to environmental pollution, chemicals, drugs; lifestyles – smoking of tobacco, overweight, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, low fruit and vegetable intake and genetics – inherited diseases.