21 Oct 2002

Samoa launches survey to track rate of non communicable diseases

12:22 pm on 21 October 2002

The Department of Health in Samoa has embarked on a survey to establish the frequency of non communicable diseases.

The Minister of Health, Mulitalo Siafausa, said the outcome of the survey will help with the assessment of how to successful the attack on NCD's has been.

But he says some of the sucess of the survey depends largely on the response from 16 villages randomly selected.

Risk factors for non communicable disases being looked at include smoking, alcohol use, obesity and high blood pressure.

Diabetes, one of the most feared non communicable diseases, is estimated to have claimed twenty thousand lives in Samoa.