World is dying due to NCDs, says M'sian activist

OXFORD, Dec 18 --  Deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Malaysia is all too common and people are often more interested in the identity of the deceased rather than enquiring on the cause of the person's death, said an activist. 

Datuk Seri Jessy Lai, who represented Malaysia at the Europe Business Assembly (EBA) – an international non-governmental organisation – said this was evident by the numerous by-elections that took place in Malaysia in recent times which was necessitated by the death of the incumbents resulting from NCDs.  

"Out of nine by-elections held in the country, three were due to heart attacks and two (due to) cancer.     

"The recent  Tanjung Piai Parliamentary by-election was held following the death of the incumbent, Datuk Dr Md Farid Md Rafik, 42, from Pakatan Harapan on Sept 21 due to heart complications. 

"But everyone, be it from the rural or urban areas, were more interested to know the identity of the deceased rather than expressing concern on the root cause of the diseases.

"The world is dying due to NCDs and this should be looked into seriously," she told Bernama after presenting a paper entitled 'Fighting Global NCDs' at the one-day Summit of Leaders 2019, themed 'Leaders who define future, future that defines leaders', at Oxford Town Hall, here, yesterday (Dec 17).    

Lai, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Monspace Multinational Corp and runs exercise clinics in numerous places in Malaysia, said the representatives from the clinics recently conducted health screen tests and physical assessments for the residents of the Tanjung Piai, where 63 per cent of a total of 143 individuals have been tested positive for NCDs and half of them were unaware of their conditions.

"Death due to NCDs has become a worrying trend in Malaysia where according to the statistics released by Health Ministry, about 50 per cent of those having NCDs in the country are not aware that they have such diseases," said the 49-year-old activist who hails from Malacca.

Commenting further, Lai, who is also council member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said the MS New Symphony Exercise Clinic run by Monspace has collaborated with seven government clinics in Malaysia and has achieved tremendous success with the opening of exercise clinics in numerous places including in Kuala Ketil, Bagan Pinang, Port Dickson and Kuala Selangor. 

She also commended Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's suggestion in asking government offices and the private sector to allocate 15 minutes for exercise and making it a culture to promote a healthy lifestyle among the staff members.

"This is important as mental health issues have been identified as one of the NCDs and it is partly attributed to stress at the workplace," she said.

When delivering her paper, Lai proposed a global plan to tackle NCDs by inviting policymakers from 16 countries to fight the diseases and contain the rising mortality rate due to these diseases over the past decades.

She said this was necessary as NCDs were the cause of 71 per cent of the total deaths in many countries.

-- BERNAMA