PANDEMICS 4.6
UN HLM on Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health – A case of same old, same old?
A Guyanese colleague more attention. Arguably, NCDs are a global pandemic, with a huge number of people harmed and the need for the highest-level cross-sector attention and collaboration, which is what September’s United Nations High Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health was intended to provide. A pandemic is the simultaneous worldwide occurrence of a disease. Typically referring to infectious diseases, such as the Spanish flu or Covid-19, the term has been used in relation to cigarette smoking, obesity and gambling, given the global nature of these challenges and their health, social and economic impacts. recently suggested that non-communicable diseases should be called ‘preventable killer diseases’ to command The main NCDs are cardiovascular disease including heart disease and
C James Hospedales, chair, executive committee, Defeat-NCD Partnership, and founder, EarthMedic and EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health stroke, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and mental ill health. NCDs kill 43 million people annually, 18 million of whom are in people under 70 years old. The major risk factors include tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, poor quality diets, inadequate physical activity and air pollution. These behavioural risks are determined by a range of social and environmental factors, including powerful transnational commercial determinants. Added to this is the overarching threat of climate change, with increasing heat and extreme weather and damage to health systems having undue impact on people with NCDs.
Non-communicable diseases are leading global killers, driven by powerful commercial and environmental forces. As world leaders reconvene on the issue, there is an urgent need for visionary action
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Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
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