Cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Accra are fast increasing, with cardiovascular ailments being a major killer of the aged and middle-aged residents of the capital city.

The Metropolitan Director of Health Services, Dr. Abena Okoh, who made the disclosure, said the NCDs which are also known as chronic respiratory diseases tend to last long. She gave environmental pollution and unhealthy lifestyles as major causes of the diseases.

Dr. Okoh stated that hypertension was the fifth highest cause of death in Accra for three consecutive years - from 2021 through 2023.

In total, about 38,826 hypertension cases were recorded in health facilities in Accra.

The record has 12,451 in 2021, 12,671 in 2022 and 13,704 in 2023, said the health director.

According to her, asthma followed with 1,364 in 2021, 2,112 in 2022 and 1,661 in 2023.

Cardiac diseases placed seventh, with 418 cases in 2021, 249 in 2022.

The Accra Metro Health Directorate highlighted stroke as an important disease too, with 187 cases recorded in 2021, and 304 in 2022.

On fatalities caused by the environmental pollution-engendered NCDs, the health director told Adom News that about 200 Accra residents died from cardiovascular diseases during the three years under review.

She testified that the James Town suburb women, whose occupation was smoking fish with fire wood, were very much at risk of getting attacked by the deadly diseases.

Indeed, among the suburbs of the capital, when it comes to cases of lung cancer and other chronic respiratory diseases, James Town always ranks high - according to the medic.

She, thus, advised women smoking fish at James Town to go for clean cook stoves for a healthier life.

Dr. Okoh assured that many deaths from non-communicable diseases are preventable, if communities and policymakers put in place right measures to minimize environmental pollution.