6th October 2022
Own Correspondent
The launch of the first edition of the Walk for Life Campaign is aimed to intensifying the commitment to the fight against communicable diseases that continue to impose a burden on the health care system health officials have revealed Thursday.
Officials say the evidence suggests that non communicable diseases are responsible for 41 million deaths(74%) each year and that the magnitude of these diseases continues to rise especially ibn low and middle income countries.
“Botswana is not left behind with research showing NCD’s to be responsible for 46% of the total deaths,” said Grace Muzila, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health.
She said, “Whilst acknowledging the importance of physical activity in preventing and managing NCD’s, the recently launched WHO publication, the \invisible numbers: the true extent of non communicable disease and what to do about them,’ posits that one in three women, one in four men and more than 80% of adolescents, are not physically active enough to experience good health.”
According to officials it is reported that insufficient physical activity is the fourth leading risk factor for mortality; with approximately 3.2million deaths each year attributed to sedentary lifestyles.
“Many other studies show that a significant number of Batswana do not engage in adequate physical activity. The Botswana NCD’s risk factors survey of 2014, indicated that 20% of Batswana do not engage in physical activity, 30.6% are overweight or obese and 95% of Batswana consume unhealthy diet,” said Muzila.
The campaign therefore aims to not only highlight the importance of tackling Non Communicable Diseases(NCD’s) through healthy eating but also serves as a practical demonstration of the importance of physical activity in the everyday lives of Batswana.
“The initiative resonates with the global movement Walk the Talk that WHO introduced to promote the HealthForAll challenge. The Walk the Talk movement has become a feature in World Health Assemblies and Regional Committees every year. What Botswana is doing now under the leadership of Minister Dikoloti is actualizing and domesticating this commitment,” said Dr Josephine Namboze, WHO Country representative.
She said, “Physical activity is one of a group of interventions known as the WHO Best Buys which are essentially population oriented interventions that create conducive environments, policies, strategies and actions to prevent and control NCD’s. The other Best Buys include taxes and restrictions on health harming commodities such as tobacco, alcohol, salt, sugar and saturated fats. They also include community engagement and sustained public education on the risk factors for Non Communicable Diseases(NCD’s).”
