HON. AGYEMAN-MANU LAUNCHES A PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT ON STOP NCDS.

The Minister for Health, Hon Kwaku Agyeman Manu has launched a public announcement on STOP Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) an initiative by the National Institution for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) heart diseases, stroke, cancers, diabetes and respiratory disease now outnumber infectious diseases as the top killers globally, accounting for about 74% of all deaths.

Hon. Agyeman Manu in a keynote address said West African Sub-region requires employing a scientific approach to improve the health and well-being of the population.

He also stated that the scientific approach to salvaging the situation would strengthen individual skills and expertise, organizational systems and processes, system-wide networking capabilities and leadership of researchers to conduct high-quality research.

“This is aligned with the ideals of the National Health Policy, 2020, and the Universal Health Coverage Roadmap (2020-2030) which calls for the use of multisectoral collaboration as a mechanism for addressing comprehensively, all the social determinants of health for better health outcomes for all,” he added.

He said the government had launched a National Policy for Non-Communicable Disease to “ensure that the burden of NCDs is reduced to the barest minimum to render it of little or no public health importance and an obstacle to socio-economic development.”

“The high-level research on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is receiving funding support from the United Kingdom Government and co-led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS).,” he revealed.

Hon. Agyeman-Manu considered the timing as apt because the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is increasing globally and thanked the funders for agreeing to support the research proposal submitted with an amount of ten million pounds over the next five years.