Tunisia News= Non-communicable diseases responsable for 82% of deaths in Tunisia

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09/02/2017 16:42, Tunis/Tunisia

(TAP) – Non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and chronic renal failure are responsible for 82% of deaths in Tunisia, a report on the right to health in Tunisia conducted by the Tunisian Association for the Defence the of Right to Health (French: ATDDS) shows. “Tunisia has, today, around 2 million individuals with high blood pressure, 1 million of diabetics, 15,000 new cases of cancer per year, 10,000 cases of chronic renal failure and projections foresee a significant increase of these diseases and their complications in the next years,” ATDDS President Sabri Belgacem noted at press conference held n Thursday at the headquarters of the Tunisian Forum for Economic Social Rights (FTDES) in Tunis. Belgacem further stressed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed an overall action plan to prevent and control non-communicable diseases for 2013-2020 with a goal to reduce by 25% premature mortality caused by these diseases in 2025. According to the same source, the report revealed major deficiencies in security and quality of care such as the lack of respect to patients’ dignity and poor quality of hospitality. “Moreover, several studies conducted in hospitals show a high level of hospital-acquired infections which reflects the flagrant weakness of arrangements to ensure the patient’s security, the report revealed. The report also highlighted the need to adopt an overall reform of the health system and to develop a national strategy that takes into account health priorities as well as the importance to organise public and private sectors and to reform the social welfare system so as to promote the quality of health services. It further shows that the Tunisian health system has suffered from poor governance that worsened social and regional inequalities to access health care. “Not only the situation has not improved since the December 2010-January 2011 Revolution, it even deteriorated,” the report denounced. “Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, poor housing, lack to access drinkable water and sanitation affect a huge number of Tunisians and significantly affect their health state,” it noted pointing out that West and South regions are the most affected by these phenomena and that women are more affected then men. “Furthermore, the country’s rapid urbanisation has led to phenomena with negative impacts on health, such as pollution, food modification, and significant increase of risk factors of non-communicable diseases,” the report added. The document further revealed that citizens in several regions are facing difficulties to find nearby health institutions that can treat their health cases in spite of the basic health centres and hospitals established nationwide. Almost half of these basic health centres offer only one medical consultation per week. Most of the local hospitals do not have an adequate technical platform and regional hospitals are significantly lacking specialist doctors. Corruption is also considered as a challenge for disadvantaged people and vulnerable groups to access care and has a negative impact on the proper functioning of care facilities, the report concluded.