T&T Must Face Its NCD Problem

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh says this country must come to grips with its Non Communicable Disease or NCD problem. At a One Day Seminar on the prevention and management of Diabetic Foot Infection, the Health Minister lamented that many of the COVID-19-related deaths were people who had complications associated with NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiac disease. He said that COVID-19 experience and those deaths should not be in vain and there must be a total behaviour change modification programme in Trinidad and Tobago. The Minister said the medicalisation of health is driven in large part by pharmaceutical companies, and he believes that is one of the worst things to happen to health. He said this, coupled with the total abdication of personal responsibility on the part of the individual, creates a perfect storm of Non Communicable Diseases.