RIYADH: Riyadh will host an international conference on healthy lifestyle and non-communicable diseases in the Arab World and Middle East on Sept. 10 under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The three-day conference, organized by the Ministry of Health will be attended by delegations from ministries of health, foreign affairs, planning and representatives, from the World Health Organization (WHO) member states in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and the Arab League.
Representatives from various United Nations agencies, international financial institutions, and other international organizations will also attend. More than 60 local and foreign health experts will address the gathering at the Faisaliah Hotel in Riyadh.
Ziyad Maimash, the Ministry of Health undersecretary for public health and chairman of the conference organizing committee, said deaths caused by non-communicable diseases in Saudi Arabia constitute 46 percent – the global percentage is 65 percent, and is expected to increase to more than 75 percent within the next ten years.
WHO launched the first world report on the status of non-communicable diseases for the year 2010, during the First Global Ministerial Conference on health lifestyle in Moscow last year.
The conference was organized after the report showed evidence of the burden of non-communicable diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Malnutrition still remains a major health problem in some countries in the region.
The report said obesity is generally attributed to an increased consumption of high fatty foods and lack of physical activity. Obesity is associated with four main non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease), and accompanied by low productivity. It can impose a financial burden on families as well as government health care costs.
The conference is a regional international forum that stresses that governments goals will not be achieved unless all sectors include health as a fundamental element when making their policies,” said ministry undersecretary Maimash.
“It aims to increase awareness about government roles and responsibilities to confront the continuing increase in non-communicable diseases, as well as the effect of these diseases on public health and social and economic development in Arab countries,” he said.
“Despite the significant improvement in the quality of life of women and men in the region, and at such a rapid pace, men and women are more likely to die early compared to their counterparts in many other countries,” he added.
MoH to host conference on healthy lifestyles in Riyadh
