{"id":745,"date":"2015-01-19T20:37:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T20:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.humanrightsagency.com\/?p=745"},"modified":"2015-01-19T20:37:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T20:37:35","slug":"noncommunicable-diseases-prematurely-take-16-million-lives-annually-who-urges-more-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/2015\/01\/19\/noncommunicable-diseases-prematurely-take-16-million-lives-annually-who-urges-more-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Noncommunicable diseases prematurely take 16 million lives annually, WHO urges more action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Urgent government action is needed to meet global targets to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and prevent the annual toll of 16 million people dying prematurely \u2013 before the age of 70 \u2013 from heart and lung diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes, according to a new WHO report.
\n\u201cThe global community has the chance to change the course of the NCD epidemic,\u201d says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, who today launched the “Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014”. \u201cBy investing just US$ 1-3 dollars per person per year, countries can dramatically reduce illness and death from NCDs. In 2015, every country needs to set national targets and implement cost-effective actions. If they do not, millions of lives will continue to be lost too soon.\u201d
\n\u201cThe global community has the chance to change the course of the NCD epidemic.\u201d
\nDr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO.
\nThe report states that most premature NCD deaths are preventable. Of the 38 million lives lost to NCDs in 2012, 16 million or 42% were premature and avoidable \u2013 up from 14.6 million in 2000.
\nNearly 5 years into the global effort to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025, the report provides a fresh perspective on key lessons learned.
\nPremature NCD deaths can be significantly reduced through government policies reducing tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity, and delivering universal health care. For example, in Brazil the NCD mortality rate is dropping 1.8% per year due in part to the expansion of primary health care.
\nBut the report calls for more action to be taken to curb the epidemic, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where deaths due to NCDs are overtaking those from infectious diseases. Almost three quarters of all NCD deaths (28 million), and 82% of the 16 million premature deaths, occur in low- and middle-income countries.
\n\u201cBest buys\u201d to reduce the burden
\nThe WHO report provides the baseline for monitoring implementation of the \u201cGlobal action plan for NCDs 2013-2020\u201d, aimed at reducing the number of premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025. Outlined in the action plan are 9 voluntary global targets that address key NCD risk factors including tobacco use, salt intake, physical inactivity, high blood pressure and harmful use of alcohol.
\n\u201cOur world possesses the knowledge and resources to achieve the 9 global NCD targets by 2025,\u201d says Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO\u2019s Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. \u201cFalling short of the targets would be unacceptable. If we miss this opportunity to set national targets in 2015 and work towards attaining our promises in 2025, we will have failed to address one of the major challenges for development in the 21st century.\u201d
\nThe report provides \u201cbest buy\u201d or cost-effective, high-impact interventions recommended by WHO, including banning all forms of tobacco advertising, replacing trans fats with polyunsaturated fats, restricting or banning alcohol advertising, preventing heart attacks and strokes, promoting breastfeeding, implementing public awareness programmes on diet and physical activity, and preventing cervical cancer through screening. Many countries have already had success in implementing these interventions to meet global targets.
\nExamples of regional and country \u201cbest buy\u201d successes listed in the report:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Turkey was the first country to implement all the \u201cbest-buy\u201d measures for tobacco reduction. In 2012, the country increased the size of health-warning labels to cover 65% of the total surface area of each tobacco product. Tobacco taxes now make up 80% of the total retail price, and there is currently a total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship nationwide. As a result, the country saw a 13.4% relative decline in smoking rates from 2008 to 2012.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hungary passed a law to tax food and drink components with a high risk for health, such as sugar, salt and caffeine. A year later, 40% of manufacturers changed their product formula to reduce the taxable ingredients, sales decreased 27% and people consumed 25-35% fewer products.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Mexico and the USA have promoted salt reduction in packaged foods and bread. Argentina has already achieved a 25% reduction in the salt content of bread.
\nWorking on the ground in more than 150 countries, WHO is helping develop and share \u201cbest buy\u201d solutions so that they can be implemented more widely. WHO is also helping countries understand the dimensions that influence NCDs outside the health sector, including public policies in agriculture, education, food production, trade, taxation and urban development\u2026
\nRead more in who.int<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urgent government action is needed to meet global targets to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and prevent the annual toll of 16 million people dying prematurely \u2013 before the age of 70 \u2013 from heart and lung diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes, according to a new WHO report. \u201cThe global community has the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}