Non Communicable Diseases (NCD’s) are on the increase in Rwanda and other Developing countries according to Jean Gahutu, the vice president of the Rwanda Medical Association.Non-communicable diseases are medical conditions that are not infectious and are non-transmissible between persons. During the 16th annual scientific conference of the medics’ body yesterday, Gahutu said that some of the NCD’s on the increase in Rwanda include Diabetes, Cancer, Hepatitis and Cardiovascular diseases.He attributed this to poor lifestyle choices such as smoking, consuming alcohol and not exercising as the leading causes of Non-communicable diseases in Rwanda and called upon Rwandans to be health conscious even in their lifestyles.“If Rwandans take exercising seriously and stop over consumption of tobacco and alcohol, then this will reduce the risk to non-communicable diseases. People should also avoid obesity through eating healthy foods such as vegetables instead of junk which all increase the risk to NCD’s,” he said.According to data that was collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, cervical cancer, which is a non communicable disease, is considered the most common cancer among women in Rwanda.In 2010, there were 986 new cases of cervical cancer reported by Rwanda’s three referral hospitals. 54.4 percent of the diagnosed cancer cases are females according to research from this Institute. The main cancers of men are stomach, amounting to16.4 percent of all cancer cases in men. In women, cervical cancer leads the table with 27.3 percent followed by breast cancer (10.5 percent) and Stomach (8.8 percent). According to information on her blog, Agnes Binagwaho, the Health Minister stated that service delivery is still a challenge. Non communicable diseases (NCDs) probably account for about 25% of the national burden of disease.
