He made this statement on Friday, 6 September 2024, at a briefing on RAID-The Gambia’s Project on trans-fatty acid foods, which aims to examine the country’s food landscape.
"It used to be only infectious diseases, but now it's even more non-communicable because 74% of all the deaths are due to non-communicable diseases. All others such as malaria, TB, road traffic injuries, etc account for only 26%, while one big killer is responsible for 74% of all the deaths.”
“The biggest killers are four, and these are cardiovascular diseases like heart disease, stroke, and heart attack."
Mr Gassama revealed that cardiovascular diseases account for 17.9 million deaths, which is roughly 57 million people dying each year from all causes, 41 million of which are due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), making up 74% of total deaths. He added that out of the 57 million global deaths reported annually, 41 million are attributed to NCDs.
“Specifically, cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke contribute to 17.9 million deaths, while cancers account for another 9.4 million. Chronic respiratory diseases are responsible for about 4 million deaths and diabetes along with its complications leads to around 2 million deaths,” he further revealed.
Gassama underscored the risk factors associated with consuming trans-fatty acid foods, noting that they are produced industrially through the partial hydrogenation of liquid oils, mostly vegetable oil. “It also occurs naturally in meat and dairy products from ruminant animals. For a healthy diet, the recommended intake of trans-fatty acid foods is less than 1% of the total energy. Shockingly, it leads to more than 500,000 deaths globally each year, which means someone dies every second.”
Sefo Singhateh of the Non-Communicable Disease Control Unit at the Ministry of Health acknowledged that The Gambia heavily relies on imported foods for its food consumption, with 99.99% of the oil being imported.
“We do not consume domestically produced oil, and even if they do, it is usually processed outside the country and then brought back. This raises concerns about the origin, processing, additives, and purity of the oils consumed. The use of trans-fatty acid foods is increasing because they are cheaper than healthier options. Many people cannot afford healthy oils, so they opt for the cheaper alternatives.”
Omar Conteh, advocacy communication officer of RAID-The Gambia, said his organisation is committed to launching a vigorous campaign against the consumption of trans-fatty acid foods but is constrained by the lack of policies to guide their work.
“The existing policies such as the Non-Communicable Disease Policy, National Nutrition Policy, and Food Safety Policy do not adequately address trans-fatty acid foods,” he observed.
