According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 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 Non-Communicable Diseases”. Caused by poor lifestyle choices, such as tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity, NCDs have resulted in large numbers of young people dying. A significant number have also fallen ill and, therefore, cannot contribute to their families or the development of their communities in any way.
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 owing to the lack of proper medical care and access to drugs, etc.
At the turn of the century, chronic NCDs were not widely recognised as a barrier to development and were not included in the Millennium Development Goals. In terms of gaining attention and financial support, these diseases were overshadowed by the devastating epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, and the large number of maternal and childhood deaths.
As stated by the WHO, much of its work in the earliest years of the decade involved collecting the data and making the arguments that would elevate NCDs on the global health and development agendas. On their part, countries – especially those with emerging economies – used the WHO STEPwise approach to gather standardised data on the true burden of these diseases. Those efforts culminated in 2011 when the United Nations General Assembly held a high-level meeting on NCDs and adopted a far-reaching Political Declaration. The Political Declaration acknowledged that the threat of NCDs constitutes one of the major challenges for development in the 21st Century, undermining social and economic progress throughout the world.
In 2013, the World Health Assembly adopted a comprehensive global monitoring framework for NCDs, with nine voluntary targets and 25 indicators. The Health Assembly also approved the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013–2020, which provided a roadmap and menu of options for taking coordinated and coherent action to attain the targets.
In Guyana, NCDs are taking a huge chunk of the budgetary allocation to the Public Health Ministry. According to official figures, currently, about 70 per cent of the Ministry’s budget is being spent on tackling NCDs.
From all indications, the Chronic Disease Unit (CDU), which has been established to tackle NCDs, has been doing a commendable job so far; but, certainly, there is need for efforts to be stepped up in certain areas. For example, there can never be enough education and public affairs programmes geared at reminding persons of the need to make positive lifestyle choices such as eating healthy, exercising daily, avoiding abuse of alcohol, and staying away from tobacco use. There is still a great deal of ignorance in the public about NCDs and how persons can avoid being affected; hence, messages should be carefully designed to address same using the relevant channels.
Additionally, we have always stressed the need for more collaborative efforts among all stakeholders, including support from Private sector bodies, to tackle NCDs, since all of them are affected as a result of loss of labour force, etc. It could be recalled that the Public Health Ministry, late last year, had met with members of the Guyana Business Coalition on Health Awareness, and a Memorandum of Understanding was developed. The idea behind the initiative was to get the Private Sector more involved in the efforts, especially as they relate to funding critical programmes aimed at tackling NCDs. It was hoped that such funding will cover support groups, training, screening, and purchasing of gym materials to allow for more physical activities in workplaces, etc. The entities had also agreed to enforce no-smoking policies in their work environment. This was a good start and should be replicated among other agencies covering a range of areas aimed at encouraging healthy lifestyles in every community.
Discussions surrounding NCDs should constantly be kept on the national development agenda where serious efforts are made at all levels to reduce the large numbers of persons suffering or facing death. We cannot afford to treat chronic NCDs lightly.
