Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 20, 2015 (SKNIS): Minister of State with responsibility for Health, Honourable Wendy Phipps, identified Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) as one of the leading causes of death in St. Kitts and Nevis while lending her support to the Appropriation (2016), Bill, 2015, on December 17, 2015.
According to health statistics in the Federation, the total number of deaths that can be attributable to NCDs is 96 percent.
Minister Phipps indicated that some of the NCD’s that are responsible for the leading causes of death in the Federation are heart disease, stroke and diabetes; deaths due to diabetes complications account for 11 percent, she said.
Some of the leading causes of our morbidity (the proportion of sickness or of a specific disease in a geographical locality) are asthma, injuries, child neglect and abuse, Minister Phipps said, adding that obesity is one of the biggest causes of sickness and that this accounts for 14 percent in children alone.
“As it relates to hypertension, we have just approximately 1,328 registered patients at the community-based health system,” Minister Phipps said, noting that the figure is not final due to the fact that a number of persons seek medical attention from their private physicians. “Likewise diabetes, we have 1,155 registered patients at the health centers in St. Kitts but the studies that we have conducted however, indicate that up to 20 percent of our population which is just over 48,000 persons are presenting with elevated levels of blood glucose, so it tells us that that figure is a lot higher than we think.”
Specific reference was also made to cancer in the Federation.
“Our NCDs (St. Kitts and Nevis)—in terms of cancer—(there is) an incidence of 53 cases (St. Kitts), of which 38 are female,” Minister Phipps said.
“There are 21 such cancer cases in Nevis (2014) and this is for a year, not the quantum. The leading cancers are breast cancer which represents 22.6 percent; (and) cervical cancer (at) 20.7 percent…”
Pertaining to the longevity of life of residents of the Federation, Minister Phipps said that life expectancy is an average of 75 years, which is an increase from 50 years of age in 1960. She differentiated by gender.
“Life expectancy for females is at 77 years, with men slightly lower at 72,” the Minister said. “Our total births, annual births—average 556, and of course the live births are totaling 547, and for those others it would be a case of prematurity or congenital abnormalities which prevent those children from being born and living a healthy life.”
Revealing the latest HIV statistic, the Minister responsible for Health also said that there is “an average of 12 new cases (for the year 2015), and for this past year there was one death, which was a male.” She compared this to the statistics from 2014 that showed that there were such16 cases. It was revealed that over 1,800 HIV tests had been conducted in 2015, and that the year 2016 would see 6000 tests being earmarked for execution. This is an effort towards acceleration of the UNAIDS 90/90/90 target. This benchmark calls for a tri-fold accomplishment of testing 90% of all persons living with HIV so they can know their status; having 90% of those persons tested and diagnosed with HIV to be referred to care and anti-retroviral treatment; and also ensuring that 90% of those receiving anti-retroviral treatment have test-confirmed, viral suppression of the illness
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