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| Prof Khoja (front row, third left) with al-Marri and other officials during the ceremony at the Millennium Hotel yesterday |
By the year 2030, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) would be one of the leading causes of poverty and impeded economic development across the globe.
“Non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and respiratory diseases, account for about 63% of the causes of mortality at the global level, 80% of them in countries with low and middle income,” GCC Council of Ministers executive office director general Prof Tawfiq bin Ahmed Khoja said yesterday.
“That is one of the reasons for deaths of people under sixty with a rate of 29% in low and middle income countries compared with 13% for countries with high income. Statistics show that NCDs are no longer the diseases of developed countries and the rich as being perceived in the recent past.”
Khoja was speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a three-year GCC-wide campaign to raise awareness about NCDs as well as the launch of a website (www.gcc-health.org) to serve as the Gulf’s electronic library that will hold and archive all regional publications on health education.
“NCDs also constitute about 47% of the disease burden globally. Though GCC countries are not immune to this, we are at the centre of the subject and at the heart of the event,” he noted.
According to epidemiological studies of early diabetes prevalence at the national level, diabetes infection is more than 20% in many GCC countries and the incidence of impairment of the metabolism of sugar (the cases of a susceptibility to the disease in the future) has exceeded the same ratio. This means that people in the region can contract diabetes at a very high rate when compared to other regions.
Prof Khoja said the fact pointed at the presence of five of the GCC countries on the list of “top 10 countries in the world” which are at the risk of diabetes, according to figures published by the World Federation of Diabetes (IDF) in 2010.
“The region is also suffering from overweight as between 40% and 70% of the population in the Gulf is overweight. Some 15% to 35% suffer from high blood pressure while the proportion of smokers in GCC states range from 16% to 46%.The situation for cardiovascular diseases, which account for more than a third of the causes of death, now represents the expenses of intensive care and the conduct of therapeutic catheters as well as surgical procedures thus leading to a substantial economic burden on health ministries in the GCC states,” he pointed out.
The official acknowledged a political declaration, signed by the GCC countries during the meetings of the General Assembly of the UN two weeks ago, stressing that NCDs have become a global epidemic and it is necessary to bring about radical changes prevention programmes for all countries of the world.
“This declaration will be translated in the form of resolutions to make vital changes motivated by the prevention of infectious diseases based on commitment to the resolutions of the General Assembly of the UN,” he said.
He emphasised that the changes should include prevention programmes for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, lung disease, as well as risk factors related to the occurrence of the diseases including smoking, obesity, overweight, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
UN member states have been told to set up committees at both national and multi-sectoral levels to develop and apply strategies and comprehensive national plans to limit the marketing of food, which are unhealthy and are causing obesity and overweight among children.
“The UN stressed the application and activating the anti-smoking legislation and raising fees and taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products and attention to screening for early detection of cancer in its early stages before they are difficult to treat and through the expansion of cancer control programmes in primary healthcare,” he noted.
Prof Khoja mentioned that the UN has confirmed the implementation of global strategies adopted for healthy eating, regular physical activity, combating non-communicable diseases and international instruments to promote breastfeeding, as well as the application of vaccination programmes as well as to reduce salts and sugars in food.
Present at the event were SCH assistant secretary-general for Medical Affairs Saleh bin Ali al-Marri, Public Health department director Dr Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, Communications and Information department director Ibrahim Jassim Fakhro, International Health Relations department director Abdul Latif al-Abdullah and Saudi-based Al Dar Public Relations director general Nadeem Mourad. Al Dar is the sponsor of the campaign with the slogan ‘Go Healthy Lifestyle ... A Way of Life’.
