WHO launches new report urging world leaders to take action on NCDs
Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday launched a new report calling on global leaders to take urgent action on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which is responsible for 17 million premature deaths every year.
Every two seconds, someone under the age of 70 somewhere in the world dies of an NCD. Noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and lung disease now outnumber infectious disease as the top killers globally.
A new report by the WHO titled “Invisible Numbers: The true scale of noncommunicable diseases,” brings together all data related to NCDs for 194 countries.
The report and portal highlight the extent of global NCD burden, risk factors, and the progress each country is making in their efforts to combat these diseases and conditions.
This comes at a critical juncture for public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people living with NCDs faced worse outcomes than those without.
The report highlights cost-effective and globally applicable NCD interventions applicable in every country.
President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo and the Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre were praised for leading the way on addressing this issue with their creation of the Noncommunicable Disease Global Compact, projected to save 50 million lives by 2030.
The report and the compact have both seen strong global support. The initial co-signatories of the Global NCD Compact 2020–2030 are the World Health Organization, the Government of Norway, and the Government of Ghana.
Further Member States are expected to support as signatories later in 2022.
The Global NCD Compact focuses on five areas of commitment; saving 50 million people from dying prematurely of NCDs, protecting 1.7 billion people living with NCDs, integrating NCDs within primary health care and integrating people living with NCDs and mental health conditions in policy-making and programming.
It also aims to increase public education as global awareness of the links between NCDs and their risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, and lack of physical activity, is low.
It is worth mentioning that Guyana recently engaged regional stakeholders on the issue with the drafting of the Ministry of Health Wellness Charter.
Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony noted at the signing of the charter that the main goal is to see persons live longer, healthier lives by reducing the large number of deaths caused by NCDs.
“Here in Guyana the life expectancy is close to 70 years but we want that to improve because in many developed countries they have longer life expectancies. We can improve that if we have targeted interventions in this life cycle.
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