Over the past 2 and a half years, there has been a strong push from civil society for governments of the world to address the growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These past two days (19-20 September 2011) those efforts have come to fruition. The UN General Assembly held a High-Level Meeting for the Prevention and Control of NCDs and adopted a Political Declaration for action on NCDs.
But first: what are non-communicable diseases or NCDs? Simply put, these are non-infectious or non-transmissible diseases. For seemingly practical purposes, an arbitrary delineation was drawn between communicable and non-communicable diseases. The main NCDs are heart/cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, cancer, and diabetes. These four main NCDs kill three in five people worldwide, and cause great socioeconomic harm within all countries, particularly developing nations. The main NCD risk factors are tobacco use, alcohol abuse, obesity, and lack of exercise.
In 2000, the United Nations member states agreed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Goal #6 of which brought focus to the growing burden of infectious or communicable diseases such as TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. This was followed in 2001 by a Special Session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS. Thus over the past decade, the world has seen tremendous political, social, and economic resources poured into reducing prevalence of TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Unfortunately, the NCDs did not receive the same level of attention or commitment, such that while we have seen the prevalence of TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS continuing to decline over time, the prevalence of NCDs has been steadily growing to epidemic proportions. 36 million people die every year from NCDs, accounting for more than 60% of global deaths. Majority of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries, and 6 million of these are caused by tobacco use.
Many people used to think that NCDs were a problem only of rich countries; however that is certainly not the case, and many low and middle income countries now face a double burden of both communicable/infectious disease and NCDs.
It is therefore timely (better late than never) that the UN General Assembly is holding a historic High-Level Meeting on NCDs. This is only the second UN GA Meeting on health; the first was the Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2001. Hopefully, this meeting will jumpstart a race to drastically reduce NCDs across the globe.
UN Member States have now adopted a Political Declaration that commits governments to accelerate implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and encourages countries, which have not yet done so, to consider acceding to the FCTC. The Declaration also recognizes that reducing tobacco consumption is an important contribution to reduce NCDs and that price and tax measures are an effective and important means of reducing tobacco consumption.
Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO
Director-General, highlighted this in her address to the UN General Assembly,
“Full
implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control would bring
the single biggest blow to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory
disease. In terms of demand reduction, increases in tobacco taxes and prices
are the most effective measure. They not only protect health. They bring in
considerable revenue.”
Speech of Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General: here
More info re NCDs and the UN High-level Meeting:
http://www.who.int/nmh/events/un_ncd_summit2011/en/index.html
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