The World Health Organisation (WHO) has disclosed that, to escape Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases, people have to engage in regular physical activities for a minimum of 30minutes daily.
WHO Nigeria Country Representative, Dr. Walter Kazadi Molumbo made the disclosure at the third edition of the global health walk in Abuja on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
Dr. Molumbo explained that the health walk, tagged “Walk the Talk” was an initiative of the WHO to create awareness about NCDs and their effects. He further explained that it was done once a year to kick off the World Health Assembly.
According to Dr. Molumbo, aside other factors like personal and environmental hygiene, poor record of physical activities and exercise among young people was significantly responsible for the increasing cases of Non-Communicable Diseases and deaths in Nigeria.
He noted that people between the ages of 30 to 69 die prematurely from non-communicable diseases in low and middle-income countries. Hence the need for awareness campaigns.
Making reference to the health walk, he said: “This is what we should be doing every day for at least half an hour if we are to beat NCDs. It is worthy of note that, NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors.
“The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.
“NCDs disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries where more than three-quarters of global NCD deaths – 31.4 million – occur”, Molumbo said.
