Zimbabwe has intensified efforts to fight the increase in non-communicable diseases among children through the strengthening of health systems to ensure all children and adolescents with chronic conditions have access to effective care and treatment.
Through a US$2,5 million fund from Eli Lilly, the Ministry of Health of Child Care, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is working to strengthen the primary health care system to increase support towards a broad range of NCDs.
This will be done through training of healthcare workers, addressing supply chains, strengthening data and health information systems, strengthening prevention, care and treatment of NCDs within Community Based Primary Health Care and referral facilities, as well as creating demand and uptake of NCD prevention behaviours.
Officiating at the official launch of the Childhood NCDs project on Thursday, Health and Child Care Deputy Minister John Mangwiro said NCDs that would be prioritised, included cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, diabetes and mental health conditions.
“We should all be concerned about the growing burden of NCDs not only in the country, but regionally and globally,” he said.
“Whereas some NCDs emerge in adulthood, others affect children directly for different reasons. NCDs in children result from a combination of genetic, environmental and behavioural factors.
“When a young child is diagnosed with a Non Communicable Disease, this implies long term treatment in order for the child to reach adulthood. We need to prevent those conditions that can be prevented, identify those with risk factors and monitor them.
“We need to manage NCDs well, meaning we make the diagnosis early, we give the best treatment. Our child with a Non Communicable Disease deserves to get the best treatment in order to reach their fullest potential.”
Dr Mangwiro said Government was committed to joining the global community in order to prevent and control NCDs and the partnership with UNICEF to address paediatric NCDs was a step towards achieving that goal.
The Eli Lilly childhood NCDs project aims to bring effective solutions, while creating linkages with partners to create long term, sustainable change to the management of childhood NCDs.
“This project will go a long way in addressing our knowledge on which conditions affect our children, which conditions should we be screening more frequently,” he said.
“It will also equip health centres across the health ladder to prevent, treat and follow up the common chronic conditions affecting children and young people.”
Dr Mangwiro said notable gaps had been identified in the care of NCD patients which was being compounded by inadequate information about the diseases within communities, the high cost of NCDs diagnosis and treatment services and the high cost of medicines.
“The information gap is wide in Zimbabwe due to common myths and misconceptions on NCDs,” he said. “The knowledge gap is wide in rural areas. This calls for the need for extensive NCDs awareness programmes in order for the population to harness opportunities on NCDs prevention, early detection and treatment.
“Late detection of NCDs leads to poor treatment outcomes and high cost of managing the diseases. Increase in NCDs awareness can empower people to recognise early warning signs, make informed choices about their health in order to prevent NCDs and counter their own fears and misconceptions about NCDs in order to present early at health institutions.”
UNICEF chief of health and nutrition Dr Alex Adjagba said chronic diseases among children could have a significant impact on the economy of any country.
“All the diseases that affect children, especially the chronic diseases, have an impact that we do not see. The child who has diabetes and is not going to school will not grow to be able to contribute to the economy of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Dr Adjagba said there could be a need to conduct research and document the economic impact that chronic diseases had in Zimbabwe.
He said the project would help to fulfil every child’s right to quality health care. He appreciated the care givers of children with chronic diseases and health workers who were working hard in the fight against NCDs.
Eli Lilly project focal person Dr Prisca Mureriwa said the project had brought paediatric non communicable diseases back on the agenda.
“We are now talking about children and their chronic conditions,” she said. “Our children in Zimbabwe deserve the care that they need, especially if they have chronic disease. We hope the launch of this programme we will see better access and better utilisation of services for our paediatric population. We are looking forward to early detection of chronic conditions.”
Dr Mureriwa highlighted the need to bridge the information gap to ensure that the population becomes aware of chronic conditions and the importance of early detection.
“We also need to be talking about how we can prevent some of these chronic conditions and this project is coming in to do that,” she said. = The Herald
