According to media reports, the Minister for Health, Ratu Antonio Lalabalavu has admitted that more than 12,000 people lost their lives in the past two years through non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and its associated complications.
It further asserted that Fiji is the leader in NCD diseases. This is a damning report.
We all know that NCD is a lifestyle disease which is the direct result of our eating, drinking & sedentary lifestyle. People have drifted away from their traditional eating habits and embraced consuming modern fast foods loaded with salt, sugar and chemicals.
We feed our children with these high calorie foods on a regular basis.
As a result obesity is a serious problem among children. Adults too have the obesity problem as they tend to consume fizzy drinks and fast foods on a daily basis.
We pay no attention to the poisoned plate that arrives on our table loaded with preservatives and chemicals obtained from the fruits, vegetables, canned food and bottled drinks.
Even bottled water has chemicals and there is no one to advise the consumers. Thus, the tragedy continues.
The urban dwellers have no choice but to buy fruits and vegetables from the roadside stalls or the municipal markets. No one has checked the chemicals the farmers have used on these. Inadvertently we continue to consume these chemicals and develop all sorts of disease.
Our hospitals are filled to capacity daily. NCD (National Diabetes Centre) at the CWM Hospital is in a sorry state of affairs.
It has been neglected for so long that it has faded in our memories.
It is housed in an old dilapidated colonial building falling to pieces. It is a national shame that such an urgent medical center can be overlooked for so long.
It is time that the current government seriously consider building an ultra modern, state of the art complex to meet the growing needs of the NCDs patients.
We can no longer sit and wait moaning and groaning on the subject. Act with the urgency it demands.
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