By Tupou Vaipulu

Diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases and cancer have become common “NCDs” in Tonga, Dr. Viliami Puloka told the first National Non-Communicable Diseases Forum, held in Nuku’alofa this week. NCDs can't be cured. “The best time to look after your health is when you’re healthy,” he said.

The two-day event held at Fa’onelua Convention Centre saw four sessions including an Overview of the NCD landscape in Tonga, the Current Status of NCDs in Tonga, Governance and Leadership, and the Multi-Sectoral Collaborations and partnerships for NCD Prevention Presentations.

Research fellow and lecturer at Otago University in New Zealand, Dr. Viliami Puloka said that Tonga's first NCD branch of the Public Health Department in Tonga, was founded in 2002.

“We began to see a new problem on the rise in Tonga, new health issues that couldn’t be cured with pills or treatments that were provided,” he said.

According to Dr. Puloka, the popular practices against NCDs at the time were education and prevention.

However, he said that it became clear to him that although prevention was a good practice against NCDs, being proactive would be more effective, because “The best time to look after your health is when you’re healthy,” he said.

Otherwise, “Non-Communicable Disease is here to stay.” 

Also known as chronic or lifestyle diseases, NCDs are health conditions that are non-transmissible and non-infectious, they include diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases and cancer.

A lead doctor in the fight against NCD, Dr. 'Ofa Tukia said that there are many risk factors that can cause the development of NCDs.

"The fight against NCDs is not easy, there isn't just one risk factor but many," she said.

Risk Factors for NCDs include the enviornment, genetics, socio-economic status and air pollution, to name a few.