By
ADAM IHUCHA – Better days for chronic diseases patients are in the offing,
thanks to the East African community for devising a homegrown lasting solution.
As
you this piece, the EAC is finalizing few things to establish medical
facilities special for chronic diseases as the annual regional bill for medical
tourism abroad hit $150 million.
This
money soared from $60 million spent in 2010 to treat hearts, kidney and cancer
patients abroad, also outstripped the EAC’s 2014/2015 fiscal year budget of
$124 million.
To
begin with, four centres of excellence in health will be established at the
cost of $72.75 million in the first phase of an ambitious EAC project being financed
by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Secretary
general for EAC, Dr Richard Sezibera, himself a medical specialist says Kenya
will host one of the centres of excellence in nephrology and urology while the
cardiovascular centre would be hosted in Tanzania.
Nephrology
is a medical science that deals with kidneys.
In
the context of diseases, it is concerned with diagnosis and treatment of kidney
diseases such as acute kidney failures, which are common nowadays.
Urology,
on the other hand, is a branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical
diseases of the male and female urinary track system and the male genital
organs.
The
organs are under the domain of urology and extend to the kidneys.
Cardiovascular
diseases (CVDs) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels,
common among them being heart disease, stroke, hypertension, rheumatic heart
disease, congenital heart disease and others.
However, experts say that nearly
90 per cent of CVDs are preventable. It is estimated that 13 per cent of CVDs
are associated with high blood pressure, 9 per cent tobacco, six per cent lack
of exercise and five per cent to obesity.
Rwanda, which has invested
a lot in the science and technology sector in recent years, probably ahead of
other EAC member states, will host the biomedical engineering and eHealth centre
of excellence.
Biomedical engineering is
the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicines and
biology for health care purposes.
The field seeks to close
the gap between engineering and medicine.
Uganda is expected to host
the oncology centre of excellence, which will deal with tumours and cancer, a
major health concern in the region in recent times.
No
such centre is planned for Burundi, which hosts the recently established EAC
Health Research Commission.
“The centres of excellence are expected to deliver high
quality and skilled personnel in the specialized fields,” the Uganda Vice
President Edward Ssekandi, said at the just ended fifty annual East African
Health and Scientific Conference held in Kampala, Uganda.
The initiative, he added,
can reduce medical tourism, which, according to him, costs the EAC partner
states a whopping $150 million annually for treatment of non-communicable
diseases mostly in India.
Indeed, the EAC partner states
rank the highest in medical tourism to India with hundreds of thousand patients
traveling to India to seek medical treatment every year.
The
Indian medical tourism industry is projected to reach $2 billion with an
estimated 3,200,000 medical value travellers arriving in India this year,
growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent, according to experts.
However, the regional
latest initiative will enhance EAC competitiveness through a highly skilled
health workforce in biomedical sciences and also enable East African citizens
to access quality and specialized services within the region.
“This is a great news I’ve
ever heard this year from EAC. These medical facilities will save lives of
millions citizens who can’t afford the treatment cost abroad” says Emmy Kimaro
of Arusha.
The deputy secretary
general of the EAC Ms Jesca Eriyo said there was strong evidence that
investment in people’s health was a key asset for society and for the economy
as a whole.
The deputy SG said the critical
goal of the EAC Health Sector Programme was to establish and sustain stronger
regional health systems including health research institutions.
She disclosed that the EAC
Council of Ministers and the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) had
already appropriated $924,067 in the EAC Budget for the current financial year
to facilitate operationalization of the East African Health Research Commission
in Burundi.
Ms Eriyo also disclosed
that the Community had developed a scorecard, tools and indicators to track
results and resources through the open health initiative (OHI) and that a
regional data warehouse for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent
health and nutrition had been developed.
Plans were also underway
to expand and include data for communicable and non-communicable diseases
surveillance in order to strengthen integrated approaches for disease
prevention, control and management.
0 comments:
Post a Comment