The World Health Organization (WHO) has today announced a new high-level commission that aims to put an end to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
The new WHO Independent Global High-Level Commission on noncommunicable diseases will comprise heads of state and ministers, leaders in health and development, and entrepreneurs.
This group will propose bold and innovative solutions to push forward the prevention and control of the leading global killers, NCDs, such as lung and heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
It is co-chaired by President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay; President Sauli Niinistö of Finland; President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka; Veronika Skvortsova, minister of healthcare of the Russian Federation; and Sania Nishtar, former federal minister of Pakistan.
NCDs: “world’s leading avoidable killers”
Seven in ten deaths occur every year due to NCDs, to which the main contributors are tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diets.
More than 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 70 die from NCDs annually.
Vázquez said: “NCDs are the world’s leading avoidable killers, but the world is not doing enough to prevent and control them.
“We have to ask ourselves if we want to condemn future generations from dying too young and living lives of ill health and lost opportunity.
“The answer clearly is ‘no.’ But there is so much we can do to safeguard and care for people, from protecting everyone from tobacco, harmful use of alcohol, and unhealthy foods and sugary drinks, to giving people the health services they need to stop NCDs in their tracks.”
Everybody deserves the right to a healthy life
The new commission was established by WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and will run until October 2019.
In the second half of 2018, it will provide actionable recommendations to contribute to the third United Nations general assembly high-level meeting on NCDs, which will include the first report to Ghebreyesus in June.
“Unlock the barriers to good health”
Ghebreyesus added: “We can beat the drivers of the NCD epidemic, which are among the world’s main obstacles to health.
“I am looking to the commission to show us new ways to unblock the barriers to good health, and identify innovative, bold, and practical action steps to scale up prevention and treatment of NCDs and provide health for all.”
