Te Marae Ora (TMO) Ministry for Health says a total of 5500 people in the Cook Islands were diagnosed with non-communicable diseases as of 2021.

Health secretary Bob Williams says his team is now working on the 2022 stats.

As part of their NCD awareness campaign, Williams said a general physical health and oral health screening is planned for the month of June for school students in Rarotonga in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the various schools.

Earlier this month as part of the World Health Day programme, TMO’s public health team on Aitutaki conducted the physical screening and deworming programme for 400 primary and secondary school students on the island.

“This programme was planned last year and all school principals confirmed the programme a month ago prior to the start date,” Williams said.

He said during this programme, 135 people from the community were also screened where some new cases of NCDs were identified and referred to the doctors for further examination and investigation.

“The feedback and response from the community was positive in terms of the team going out to the workplaces to conduct the screening and reaching out in the community.”

Williams said part of the programme was the demonstration of healthy food preparation by the “Advent Truth Church”.

The week’s programme ended with Koni Fit dance supported by the Aka’uka team from Rarotonga which raised $170 in support of the Cook Islands Autism programme.