Nairobi — Kenya needs to invest more in preventive campaigns than curative ones, health experts have said.

According to delegates at the seventh Global Conference on Health Promotion on Tuesday, there was need to develop more innovative measures aimed at curbing non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, mental illnesses, asthma and cancer.

"Thousands of lives are lost to road carnage and non-communicable diseases every year whereas they can be prevented through public awareness," said Dr Kizito Lubano, acting assistant director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute.

Dr Lubano said the current budget allocation for health was too small.

On Monday, at the official opening of the conference, both Medical Services minister Anyang' Nyong'o and Public Health minister Beth Mugo asked the government to increase the budgetary allocation to the health sector in the next fiscal year.

The five-day conference seeks to find innovative ways in which rich and poor countries can work together to bridge gaps in implementation of campaigns aimed at providing quality healthcare to all.

Non-communicable diseases are top on the agenda at the conference because they are "silent killers" which usually manifest in a patient in the late stages.

Statistics show that 14 million people worldwide suffer from non-communicable diseases, which are more expensive to treat than other illnesses.

While patients get treatment for other diseases for as little as Sh20 in public health facilities, a vial of insulin for diabetics, for example, costs Sh500 and requires to be replenished every two weeks.

Non-communicable diseases have risen to 40 per cent of all infections in the country, compared to 20 per cent 10 years ago.

This places a heavy treatment burden on patients.

Global Health Promotion associate director David McQueen echoed the ministers' sentiments and called for creative and workable ideas to address trends that cripple the health system.

Kenya is hosting the annual conference for the first time. There are 500 delegates from 102 countries.