MINISTER of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, has warned that unless something is done, by 2020, non-communicable diseases will be responsible for up to 78 per cent of all deaths in Nigeria.

Speaking at the biennial conference of the Association of Clinical Chemistry of Nigeria and the inauguration of African Federation of Clinical Chemistry, at the University of Ibadan (UI), on Monday, the minister said non-communicable diseases were associated with genetic predisposition and related to lifestyle with multifactorial environmental influences.

The minister, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Abiodun Ilesanmi, said non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and respiratory disease, were causes of morbidity and mortality in the developed countries and were emerging in the developing nations.

According to him, the diseases were now reaching epidemic proportion, a condition which accounted for about 60 per cent global death and disabilities all over the world and responsible for close to 44 per cent premature death worldwide,

The minister added that in the coming decades, the number of death due to non-communicable diseases was expected to rise, especially in Nigeria and other developing countries.

He called on members of the public to modify their dietary intake.

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