By Wilfred Golden
Malawi Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (NCD Alliance) says the country requires more funding allocations towards the work of bridging the gap of knowledge and awareness on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among the citizens in the country.
Through the media orientation meeting on Knowledge, Altitude and Practice (KAP) survey which the organization had,it was discovered that there is less allocation of funding towards NCDs multi-sectoral engagements which is leading to low level of knowledge and awareness for more people to take part in combating the diseases.
Chairperson for the Alliance, Maud Mwakasungula, said they had KAP survey dwelling on care services in health facilities in order to find out if people really know about the health care services they can access on NCDs.
“What we are saying is that do people in the communities understand that when they go to the hospital they can have their sugar measured, they can have their blood pressure measured, do they know that they can ask for services from the laboratory, these are the areas we need to improve,” she said.
On the findings of the survey,she said that there is need for more awareness on the NCD services mostly for people in the urban areas as most of them are not too sure of what they can be able to access on NCD services unlike people in the rural areas where it has been discovered that they are reluctant to no more information on the care services whenever there are awareness meetings.
“On our recommendations looking at care services we need to look into how much we can push forward that the government should be providing just minimal things like a BP machine and gluco-meter so that people should have care services at large,” Mwakasungula highlighted.
On his part,Dr. Henry Ndindi who undertakes the survey said they were looking at knowledge of the population on the risk factors towards NCDs specifically targeting diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy as well as asthma diseases on their knowledge of available services at health facilities like Likuni mission hospital and Kabudula.
“We noted that regarding risk factors, people have some information but they get this information through informal communication amongst themselves and probably there is a need for more sensitization on that,” Ndindi said.
He therefore emphasized the need for much sensitization on the risk factor on NCDs and where people can get services and that people should get screening for earlier prevention of the condition.
NCD Alliance coordinated by Women’s Coalition Against Cancer (WOCACA), is implementing a project dubbed at “Advocacy Institute Accelerator Programme” aiming at contributing towards Malawi government effective implementation of NCDs and other related policies for improved preventive measures, care support, financing and engaging communities and they held this KAP survey to be used as part and parcel of the project.
©Malawi News Online
