Senators in the senatorial Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Human Rights and Petitions, have called for more efforts to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) said to be on the rise in the country.

Since Monday, the senators have been meeting different stakeholders in the health sector to understand how they currently deal with the diseases and how they think their prevention and care can be improved.

Non-communicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases, are those that aren’t passed from person to person even if they last for long and generally tend to progress slowly.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified four main types of NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma, as well as diabetes.

With about 2 per cent of Rwandan patients affected by the NCDs, senators are worried that enough is probably not being done to curb the diseases.

"We are dealing with a difficult issue right now. An issue that affects two per cent of the population shouldn’t be taken lightly,” Senator Jean-Damascène Ntawukuriryayo told leaders of insurance companies.

The insurers were summoned to a meeting in the Senate yesterday to discuss how they are helping Rwandans suffering from NCDs and what they think should be done to improve prevention and treatment of the diseases.

At the core of the issue is that treatment of the diseases tends to be expensive as patients end up on long-term and often expensive drugs.

And given how expensive it is to treat the diseases, access to care and treatment for them remains inaccessible for a big section of the population, mainly low income earners who are subscribed to the community-based health insurance scheme (Mutuelle de Santé).

"The main emphasis should be on prevention against NCDs. We hope that these consultations in the Senate will come up with proposals on how to improve services for prevention and care against NCDs,” said Alexis Rulisa, the head of Mutuelle de Santé at the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB).

Some of the ways to prevent the diseases include eating healthy, exercising regularly, avoiding tobacco and alcohol use, and conducting regular general medical check-ups for early detection and treatment of the diseases.

But a core component of the prevention remains hard to access for many Rwandans as insurance companies charge more for clients willing to conduct regular general medical check-ups and the service remains inaccessible for Mutuelle de Santé users.

"Many insurance companies are very good at treating sick people but we aren’t doing enough to prevent diseases. We should be doing more to prevent the diseases and that’s where the need for offering our clients general medical check-up services comes in,” said Dr Felix Kayihura, a medical advisor with Radiant Insurance Company.

The Chief Executive Officer of Saham Assurance in Rwanda, Patrick Nouh, agreed with Kayihura on the limited ability of insurance companies to afford general medical check-ups for their clients.

"The reason why we don’t offer general medical check-up options for most clients is because you would be certain that every client will go for the medical check-ups, which wouldn’t be viable for the insurance business,” he said.

The insurers suggested that a nationwide campaign against NCDs needs to start for people to sign up on medical check-up services and adopt healthy habits that would prevent the diseases.

"We expect ideas from insurance companies to guide the government on what should be done to curb the increasing cases of NCDs,” said Senator Perrine Mukankusi.

Senator Gallican Niyongana, the chairperson of the senatorial Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Human Rights and Petitions, said that the committee’s consultations on NCDs will continue today with a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Health.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw