Aug 28, 2021
A Pandemic of Non-Communicable diseases
There are flaws in what was formerly thought to be the backbone of health care, namely institutionalized therapy.
A state’s health care system has to be bolstered after suddenly losing access to these institutions.
COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as uncontrolled diabetes and cardiovascular disease have a strong relationship. Maintaining these health criteria was essential and would need continuous access to healthcare services, which was not possible.
From 1990 to 2016, NCDs accounted for 55% of India’s overall illness burden.
NCDs means a collection of diseases that cannot be transmitted from one person to another; they harm individuals over a long span of time and place a socio-economic cost on the country as a whole.
Factors affecting individuals with NCDs
Major behavioral, environmental & natural risk factors are:
- Air Impurity
- Moderate Physical Activity
- Lack of high-grade diet
These three variables are a lot more important than stress, cigarette use, and obesity combined.
Challenges in future
With the COVID-19 getting so much attention in today’s time, we are forgetting that we have more lethal diseases than COVID-19, and we must start focusing on those diseases too.
The lack of access to health care during the pandemic affected drug compliance and led to uncontrolled illness, which had an adverse impact on quality of life as a result.
Lack of knowledge is another challenge for the administration.
Acknowledgment to the crisis
Nations throughout the globe have admitted that they are focused too much on the COVID-19 Pandemic and communicable illnesses, and they must start focusing on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which affect a far larger population than COVID-19 does.
The risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death from COVID-19 is greater in those with underlying health problems such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, and cancer. People with NCD risk factors may be more susceptible to COVID-19.
Doorstep healthcare delivery can mitigate the effects of disruption caused by pandemics.
Conclusion
It's time that we start focusing on NCDs and give more focus to the NCDs diseases.
Non-Communicable Diseases are expensive to treat. National strategies have to focus on prevention and health promotion as key to reduce disease burden.
Health education programs that promote exercise, weight reduction, early diagnosis, screening are some of the key interventions that need to be promoted at various levels of health facilities.
