A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report released recently has once again underscored the urgent need for Governments and other stakeholders to step up efforts to control Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to meet globally agreed targets, including preventing the premature deaths of millions of people from these conditions.
We have seen and heard of the large numbers of persons dying or becoming permanently disabled due to NCDs. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, once linked only to affluent societies, have affected, and continue to affect every country in the world; with the poor suffering the most due to the lack of proper medical care and access to drugs, etc. In Guyana’s case, NCDs are taking a huge chunk of the budgetary allocation for the Public Health Ministry. Official statistics show that currently, about 70 per cent of the Ministry’s budget is being spent on tackling NCDs.
Owing to poor lifestyle choices, such as tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity, NCDs have resulted in countless deaths which otherwise could have been avoided. Another significant number have also fallen ill and, therefore, cannot contribute to their families or the development of their communities in any way.
According to the WHO’s Non-Communicable Disease Progress Monitor 2017 report, limited national progress has been made in the fight against NCDs. But the report – which charts actions by countries to set targets, implement policies to address four main shared and modifiable NCD risk factors and build capacities to reduce and treat NCDs – shows that progress around the world has been uneven and insufficient.
The Progress Monitor provides data on 19 indicators in all of WHO’s 194 Member States. The indicators include setting time-bound targets to reduce NCD deaths, developing Government policies to address NCDs, implementing key tobacco demand reduction measures, measures to reduce harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets and promote physical activity, and strengthening health systems through primary health care and universal health coverage.
The WHO report also documents efforts by countries to implement a so-called set of “best buys” and other interventions that can prevent or delay most premature NCD deaths, and which were endorsed during this year’s World Health Assembly. Such cost-effective and readily implementable measures include increasing taxation and plain packaging on tobacco products, reducing sodium content in food, providing drug therapy and counselling to people with diabetes and hypertension, and screening and vaccinating girls and women to protect them from cervical cancer.
In Guyana, while there have been some positive moves in tackling NCDs, such as finalising the Tobacco Control Legislation, etc, some experts believe that enough is not being done in the fight against NCDs. It could be recalled that there was an NCD strategy in the years 2003-2008 and again in the 2008-2015 period which outlined a comprehensive and effective programme to fight NCDs. It is not clear if these are still being used as a guide by health authorities.
Further, former Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy had recently pointed out that some of the crucial programmes that were previously in place to tackle NCDs appear to have been reduced or abandoned completely. In particular, he had pointed to the aggressive education and awareness campaigns that were very much visible some years ago. Also, community health fairs and school programmes and other initiatives, which were used to address issues such as positive lifestyles are becoming less visible. As we had stated before, these are all useful strategies in ensuring the message of healthy lifestyles continues to reach everyone in every community across the country and must continue.
Of all the major health threats that have emerged over the years, none has challenged the very foundations of public health so profoundly as the rise of chronic NCDs. It is, therefore, hoped that the issue will be kept on the national development agenda and serious efforts are made, with the involvement of all stakeholders, to significantly reduce the large numbers of persons suffering or facing death.
