WHO said while launching the Independent Global High-level Commission on NCDs that bold and innovative solutions were now on the table to accelerate the prevention and control of deadly NCDs.
The UN health agency said such non-communicable were heart and lung disease, cancers and diabetes.
adding a new high-level commission is getting set to begin its work.
Tabaré Vázquez, President of Uruguay and co-chair of new WHO high-profile panel said: “NCDs are the world’s leading avoidable killers.
“But the world is not doing enough to prevent and control them. We have to ask ourselves if we want to condemn future generations to dying too young and living lives of ill health and lost opportunity.
“The answer clearly is ‘no’. But there is so much we can do to safeguard and care for people.
“This is from protecting everyone from tobacco, harmful use of alcohol, and unhealthy foods and sugary drinks, to giving people the health services they need to stop NCDs in their tracks”.
According to the global health agency, more than 15 million people between 30 and 70 years old died annually from NCDs.
It added that low- and lower-middle income countries were increasingly affected – with half of premature deaths from NCDs occurring in those countries.
“For the first time in history, more people are dying of non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, than infectious diseases.
“This loss of human life spares no one –rich or poor, young or old – and it imposes heavy economic costs on nations,” said Michael Bloomberg, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Commission member.
Bloomberg said many lives could be saved from NCDs through early diagnosis and improved access to quality and affordable treatment, as well as a whole-of-government approach to reduce the main risk factors.
“The more public support we can build for government policies that are proven to save lives – as this Commission will work to do – the more progress we’ll be able to make around the world,” Bloomberg added.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “Everybody deserves the right to a healthy life. We can beat the drivers of the NCD epidemic, which are among the world’s main obstacles to health.”
Dr Sania Nishtar, former Federal Minister of Pakistan, argued that while there had been improvements in some countries and regions, the overall rate of progress has been unacceptably slow.
She said the situation was “resulting in too many people suffering and dying needlessly from NCDs, and leaving families, communities and governments to bear the human and economic costs.”
“This year, governments will be held to account on progress they have made in protecting their citizens from NCDs,” Nishtar, a co-chair of the NCDs commission, underscored.
(NAN)
