Friday 3 October 2014

Mak students cautioned against smoking shisha,http//drivhot.blogspot.com


Makerere University students cautioned against smoking shisha, tasked to educate public on health issues.



KAMPALA
Makerere University students have been tasked to sensitise the public on dangers and causes of non-communicable diseases among the people.
The call was made on Thursday by Makerere University senior lecturer who is the head of pathology depart Dr Lynnette Kyokunda Tumwine while launching the university’s health club organised by civil society organization Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) at the university.
“My advice to the students is for them to eat healthy foods like brown bread instead of white bread, white meat like chicken and fish instead of red meat like beef and pork, avoid smoking shisha so as to avoid non communicable diseases like diabetes and cancers,” said Dr Kyokunda.
Dr Kyokunda explained that unlike the traditional doctors who are free to advertise their products and services, as health practitioners, the law bars them from advertising their services; a move that she said leaves the general public in ignorance of health issues.
She further explained that the medical oath known as "Hippocratic oath" that they took forbids them from advertising themselves or their products and services.
It is therefore, against this background that tasked the students to sensitise the public about the dangers of non-communicable diseases on their behalf.
Non communicable diseases are disease or conditions that are not transmissible from one person to another either directly or through vectors and are caused by lack of exercise, unhealthy diets, drinking alcohol and smoking, among others.
Dr Kyokunda also warned the students of a new type of cancer called colon that she said was becoming very common with university students.Cancer of the colon is the cancer of the stomach.
CEHURD has for the last three weeks been behind the launch of health clubs in different universities in the country with the core motive of advocating for healthy living amongst students.
About a week ago, while launching the health club at Kampala International University (KIU), Dr. Gerald Mutungi, the head of non-communicable diseases –ministry of health said statistics from the ministry about non communicable disease are worrying.
Dr Mutungi said that hypertension patients stand up to 25% of the total population, diabetes between 3% to 8% of the population, cancers 300 patients per 100,000 people and 300 people per 1,000,000 people having kidney related diseases.
He further said that 80% of the people with the non-communicable disease don’t know that they have them and yet they lead to death once discovered late

No comments:

Post a Comment