Noncommunicable diseases strategy to save 50 million people by 2030

The World Health Organisation, in liaison with Ghana and Norway, announced a noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) strategy that aims to save 50 million people by 2030

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have launched a noncommunicable diseases strategy, with the ambitious goal of saving 50 million people from dying prematurely of NCDs.

NCDs are largely preventable and treatable in modern times

At the meeting, Ghana and Norway highlighted that there is a noncommunicable disease pandemic unfolding in real-time across the world. This specific pandemic kills seven out of ten people, from risk factors like tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and air pollution.

But in the contemporary era, NCDs are largely preventable and treatable. In fact, nearly seven millions lives can actually be saved for the cost of US$ 0.84 per person per year, from now until 2030.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa: “Noncommunicable diseases account for nearly a third of deaths in Africa, where they not only pose a grave threat to health and well-being, but also blunt socioeconomic development.”

The investment mentioned above would create more than US$ 230 billion in economic and societal benefits, averting nearly 10 million heart attacks and strokes globally by 2030.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization: “Apart from the lives they take, NCDs take a heavy toll on economies, cutting down people in their most productive years. Overcoming this challenge requires technical, financial, and above all, political commitment.”

The new compact has five key aims:

1. By 2030, the NCD compact will aim to prevent 50 million people from dying prematurely, by implementing cost-effective measures to control the outcome of these preventable diseases;
2. The provision of medicines and care during humanitarian emergencies, to protect 1.7 billion people currently living with NCDs;
3. The integration of primary health care and universal health coverage;
4. Comprehensive NCD surveillance and monitoring;
5. And finally, engaging meaningfully with 1.7 billion living with NCDs and mental health conditions in the actual policy-making and programming that concerns them.

Mr Nana Addo Dankwa Afuko-Addo, President of Ghana, said: “Tacking the phenomenon of NCDs requires leadership to provide visibility to NCD issues. I ask my Heads of State colleagues to join hands with me as we establish a Presidential Group (non-binding), and as we find solutions to NCDs with a roadmap of universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

“In our time, this will be our legacy.”