Phaahla outlines interventions to curb diabetes, other lifestyle diseases
Diabetes remained the second leading underlying cause of death in 2020 at 6.6% of all deaths, following Covid-19 which reached South Africa in 2020 and became the leading cause of death.
On Monday, Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla outlined the department’s response to the emerging pandemic of lifestyle diseases at a round table discussion between research agencies from Canada, China, India and the World Health Organisation in Pretoria.
Phaahla said women are most at risk for diabetes-related deaths.
“When you look at the gender specific aspects, diabetes is the leading cause of death amongst females at 8.2% in the 2020-year statistics, having increased from 7.7% in 2018. The rate at which diabetes is becoming the leading cause of death is a cause for concern in our country.”
As the first port of call for those seeking medical treatment for chronic diseases primary healthcare facilities such as clinics, and healthcare centres, are being equipped to manage and monitor patients with non-communicable diseases.
“At the heart of our NCD response is strengthening our public health care services. Our department is also working to ensure that treatment where it’s needed and is affordable. At our public healthcare facilities treatment is free,” Phaahla said.
“We’ve also made strides in ensuring availability of essential medicines.”
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Other interventions include working together with traditional health practitioners by training them to identify such diseases and refer patients to health facilities.
The department has also embarked on joint ventures with private health organisations such as Park Run to promote healthy living.
At the same time, the deputy minister has admitted that government can do more to monitor compliance with food labelling regulation.
This, he said, are some of the interventions needed to tackle lifestyle diseases by helping consumers identify salt, sugar and trans-fat quantities in the food they buy.
In 2018 South Africa imposed the sugar tax on sweetened beverages but experts and health activists say more needs to be done to prevent diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
Phaahla also acknowledged that the department needs to do more to capitalise on the money collected from the health promotion levy (sugar tax).
“We need to take advantage of the health promotion levy. We acknowledge the fact that we’ve not made enough use of that. It collects somewhere around R2 billion which goes to Treasury, and we get a minuscule amount of that as the Department of Health.
“We need to show cause why we need the funds to do this work, and hopefully also assist the non-governmental organisations which are doing great work,” he added.
The latest food related concern has been cases of food poisoning especially among school-going children who buy goods from small outlets like spaza shops.
“We are lacking in as far as monitoring. We are working together with other colleagues in Trade and Industry, Home Affairs and the police, over and above our environmental health practitioners to make sure those food outlets are monitored.”
