Kingdom vows to fight NCDs

Saudi Arabia has backed global efforts to combat noncommunicable diseases and pledged to lend all support to regional and international initiatives.
“The Kingdom, under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, is on the forefront of any action or plan to prevent and control the NCDs,” said Dr. Mansour Al-Hawasi, deputy health minister, while speaking yesterday during the opening of the international conference on healthy lifestyle and NCDs in the Arab world and the Middle East.
Al-Hawasi said the conference will focus on the role of the governments and their responsibilities to curb the alarmingly growing rates of NCDs on public health and socioeconomic development on regional level. Ministers of health, scientists, high-ranking officials from the member states of Arab League and World Health Organization experts are participating in the conference.
“The conference would seek to strengthen regional and international cooperation on preventive measures against such diseases in the region,” Al-Hawasi said. The ministry attaches high priority to noncommunicable diseases and, hence, launched a series of programs aimed at preventing such diseases at early stages to minimize their effects, he added.
He said that there was need to “do more to combat the diseases.” However, a WHO report released yesterday recognized the efforts of the GCC countries and the progress made by them in this field, especially in adopting a regional strategy to address noncommunicable diseases.
The GCC, whose ministers of health met in Oman early this year, is the first regional entity to respond, at a heads of state level, to the UN General Assembly Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs.
The strategy outlines a plan to implement commitments agreed in September in the UN General Assembly’s Political Declaration on NCDs.
NCDs cause more than 60 percent of all deaths in GCC countries and are caused by shared risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
“The regional strategy details what the six countries will be doing to tackle NCDs during the next years,” said the report. “It also highlights what the six countries will do to set targets and measure results, and strengthen national capacity,” it added.
Referring to efforts to combat the NCDs with an aim to reduce premature deaths, the report said that the GCC had endorsed a regional approach to reduce premature deaths. The report said that the “Gulf states have the knowledge of what works to prevent and treat NCDs, a global public health and development problem of increasing significance to many countries.”
“We are pleased to see the GCC countries taking concrete action to implement affordable best practices to curb NCDs,” it added.
Up to 50 percent of people dying from these diseases in some of the Gulf countries, die prematurely, before the age of 60 years. This initiative by the GCC should be a major landmark in stopping these premature deaths, said the report. Noncommunicable or chronic diseases account for over 50 percent of annual deaths and 60 percent of disease burden in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The four main NCDs — cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases — are the largest contributors to mortality in the region.
Deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease range from 49 percent in Oman to 13 percent in Somalia. There are very high rates of diabetes in the region; six countries out of the 10 globally with the highest prevalence of diabetes are in the region. Prevalence rates of over 20 percent are reported in some countries.
The noncommunicable disease epidemic is being driven by an aging population, progressive unplanned urbanization and globalization of trade and marketing leading to increased exposure to risk factors for NCDs.
The prevalence of NCD risk factors is high in most countries of the region. Data indicate that more than one quarter of the adult population has high blood pressure. A high prevalence of hypercholesterolemia was noted with a range of between 20 percent and 40 percent among adults aged between 15 and 65 years. The region has the highest rates of physical inactivity, among other regions. About 50 percent of women and more than a third of men are insufficiently active. Tobacco consumption and prevalence of smoking among adult men ranges between 12 percent and 60 percent.
“Referred to as a lifestyle disease because a majority of the NCDs are preventable illnesses, the most common causes for noncommunicable diseases include tobacco use, alcohol abuse, poor diets including high consumption of sugar, salt, saturated fats and trans fatty acids,” said a WHO report. Physical inactivity is one of the major causes of NCDs, which kills 36 million people a year. That number that by some estimates is expected to rise by 17 to 24 percent within the next decade, it noted.
Al-Hawasi said that the conference has been divided into 11 sessions, which will address different topics. Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah will deliver his keynote speech today, setting the stage for the conference. The session will focus on state of the NCD epidemic and how serious it is in the region, NCD risk factors as well as global and regional trends, the vision and road map for addressing NCDs, and what the UN General Assembly Political Declaration asks countries to do.
Topics include global advances in tobacco control, physical activity, dietary changes, the national NCD program in Saudi Arabia, the NCD experience in North Africa, the national NCD program in Kuwait and the UAE. Diet and eating behaviors with reference to the current status and priorities for action in the region will also be taken up for discussions.
Other topics include priorities in NCD care, a global view on NCDs, preventing diabetic blindness, essential medicines program in Lebanon, lifestyles of adolescents and the impact of health promotion, innovative utilization of media to raise the community health awareness, prevention of cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, research agenda, prevention and control of diabetes and its complications. Prevention and control of cancer and framework for NCD prevention and control national programs will also touched by the panelists.
The concluding session, during which a set of recommendations will be announced, on Wednesday will be chaired by Al-Rabeeah. Saudi government agencies are participating in the conference. They include Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, General Presidency of Youth Welfare, Saudi Food and Drug Authority, Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Several other Saudi government agencies and health institutions including the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Culture and Information, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Defense, National Guard Health Affairs, Saudi Aramco, Gulf Cooperation Council, King Fahd Medical City, Ministry of Economy and Planning, and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology are also participating.
This is in addition to a large number of other Saudi organizations and institutions participating in the event. Prominent among them include Saudi Oncology Society, Saudi Heard Association, Saudi Thoracic Society, Saudi Diabetes & Endocrine Association, Saudi Osteoporosis Society, National Prevention of Blindness Committee, and Saudi Hypertension Society.