By SEPKOLIN WALNE
PORT Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi says lifestyle diseases in Papua New Guinea are increasing rapidly.
“The lifestyle disease, or the non communicable disease, is overtaking the infectious disease.
“The common causes of lifestyle disease category are stroke and heart disease is the first one followed by cancer and third, chronic kidney disease due to diabetes, hypertension, those are the three common causes of lifestyle disease in our hospitals,” Dr Molumi said.
He also revealed that deaths from cancer, including breast and cervical cancer, were increasing.
“Six women per day die from breast cancer and cervical cancer – four from cervical cancer and two from breast cancer,” Dr Molumi said.
“So, that’s the challenges that we have in this country, where our traditional disease of infectious diseases is slowly being overtaken by the new emerging disease in the lifestyle disease category.”
Dr Molumi acknowledged the support of the government towards lifestyle disease.
“The government has invested heavily into addressing the lifestyle diseases.”
He added that PMGH had established a Cardiac Centre to treat heart patients.