Chronic diseases: The global epidemic

MMS Bulletin: No ‘business as usual’ against non-communicable diseases

MMS Bulletin #145: Swiss online journal for international cooperation and health

Medicus Mundi Switzerland A diabetes epidemic in Mexico, cardiovascular diseases in Tanzania – non-communicable diseases have long since arrived in low-income countries and are posing huge challenges for healthcare services there. Politicians have for a long time underestimated the problem and, in doing so, have opened the door for the proliferation of the global food and tobacco industries. Their health-endangering products are significant causes for the spread of non-communicable diseases in developing countries and emerging economies. What options do politicians have left to counter such developments? Which role do civil society organisations play and what responsibility does Switzerland bear in the battle against chronic diseases? In the upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on non-communicable diseases, the international community is being challenged to finally put the necessary political measures in place. In its 2017 Symposium the Medicus Mundi Switzerland network intensively discussed the challenges and responsibilities and we are publishing some of the contributions and debates in our current MMS Bulletin. (Photo: © Vietnam Matthew Dakin/Novartis Foundation)

www.medicusmundi.ch

Is it still possible to get the global pollution under control?

The Lancet Commission on pollution and health

The Lancet Global pollution has increased dramatically in recent decades, threatening above-average vulnerable populations in middle and low-income countries. 92% of the deaths from environmental pollution occur in these countries, 70% of them due to chronic diseases. The newly established "Lancet Commission on pollution and health" warns with six recommendations on swift action and criticizes international development and health cooperation for having neglected the problem too long. Also in the current WHO "Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases", so the further criticism, the problem is hardly mentioned. (Photo: Scavengers Burning Trash, Tondo Garbage Dump, Manila Philippines/Adam Cohn/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

www.thelancet.com

WHO Bulletin – special issue on healthy ageing

November 2017

World Health Organisation (WHO) "This month’s issue has a special focus on healthy ageing, as introduced by John R Beard et al. in the first editorial. Dulce M Cruz-Oliver et al. expand on this theme in a second editorial with a discussion of end-of-life care in low and middle-income countries. Both editorials obviously focus on health policies & global frameworks in this respect, but it is also worth to draw attention to this paragraph: “ … Perhaps the most important barriers to ensuring that the SDG’s are inclusive of older people are pervasive misconceptions, negative attitudes and assumptions about older age. Ageism remains socially acceptable, strongly institutionalized, largely undetected and unchallenged. Ageism is a powerful barrier to developing good public policy, because it limits the way issues are framed and addressed..." (Editorial by John R Beard et al.) Photo: Peter van Eeuwijk/ Universität Basel

www.who.int

Tobacco industry is bullying African countries

The Guardian The African market with its growing numbers of children and young people and its increasing wealth, represents a huge outlet for the giant tobacco industries. The "British American Tobacco (BAT)" is attempting to capture this market by all means and is not afraid fighting through the African courts in order to avert protections and laws that prevent the population from the harm (and killing) consequences of smoking. Laws that have long been standard in rich countries. The Guardian got undisclosed court documents which reveale these aggressive and intimidatory tactics that tobacco companies are using. (Photo: Lynae Zebest / Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

www.theguardian.com

Mental Health: A Forgotten Facet of Healthcare

MMS Bulletin #142, June 2017

MMS Globally close to 450 million people have mental health disorders; more than 75% of that number live in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, 85% of patients in developing countries with serious mental disorders receive no treatment at all. For the first time, world leaders are recognizing the promotion of mental health and wellbeing (SDG Goal 3.4) and the prevention and treatment of substance abuse (SDG Goal 3.5) as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unless governments tackle mental health, they will not meet the SDG 3 targets. Medicus Mundi Switzerland addresses the issue of mental health as part of its annual focus on non-communicable diseases. (Illustration: WHO's World Health Day Campaign 2017 "Let's Talk")

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Cancer rates are soaring in Africa, yet Tanzania's radiotherapy hub stands idle

A state-of-the-art oncology clinic lacks the funding and staff to get its equipment up and running, despite thousands of people requiring life-saving treatment

The Guardian The newly built wing of the Bugando Hospital in Tanzania's second-largest city is empty and deserted. Built as a modern oncology department, many cancer patients should have been given here an appropriate diagnosis and therapy in order to avoid the cumbersome and expensive way to the therapy center in Dar es Salaam, which is 1000 km away. But the financial resources are lacking in order to employ the medical staff and to put the new X-ray department into operation. A tragic in face of the explosive rise in cancer patients. Meanwhile more women in Tanzanian die due to cervical cancer than during childbirth. (Photo: Direct Relief / Bugando Medical Center, Tanzania / flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

www.theguardian.com

Early cancer diagnosis saves lives

World Health Organisation (WHO) Cancer is diagnosed too late. The new WHO guidelines are intended to improve the early diagnosis of these diseases worldwide. One important step is to educate the population about early symptoms of cancer and encourage them to visit a health care facility in time. (Photo: Community Eye Health / flickr)

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A tobacco-free world by 2040?

A Lancet Series

The Lancet A tobacco-free world by 2040? The Lancet In it's edition of 14 March 2015 "The Lancet" launches a campaign for a tobacco-free world by 2040. The editors write: "Current global anti-tobacco strategies are failing. We endorse the Series' call for a UN high-level Summit on tobacco use to reinvigorate global and national efforts to achieve a tobacco-free world by 2040. The time has come for not only greater WHO leadership, but also leadership from the UN Secretary-General, because tobacco is not just a threat to health, it is also a threat to sustainable human development." (Photo: Jonathan Kos-Read/flickr)

www.thelancet.com

Nichtübertragbare Krankheiten: 16 Millionen frühzeitige Todesfälle jährlich

Bericht der Weltgesundheitsorganisation

WHO 38 Millionen Menschen starben 2012 an den Folgen von nichtübertragbaren Krankheiten wie Herz-Lungen-Krankheiten, Diabetes oder Krebs. Davon wären 42% oder 16 Millionen verhinderbar, wie die Weltgesundheitsorganisation in einem neuen Bericht festhält. (Bild: WHO)

www.who.int

Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014

This global status report on prevention and control of NCDs (2014), is framed around the nine voluntary global targets. The report provides data on the current situation, identifying bottlenecks as well as opportunities and priority actions for attaining the targets. The 2010 baseline estimates on NCD mortality and risk factors are provided so that countries can report on progress, starting in 2015. In addition, the report also provides the latest available estimates on NCD mortality (2012) and risk factors, 2010-2012.

apps.who.int

Chronic disease: an economic perspective

Report of the Oxford Health Alliance 2006: "This major report, 'Chronic disease: an economic perspective', written by Marc Suhrcke, Rachel A. Nugent, David Stuckler and Lorenzo Rocco for OxHA, demonstrates that chronic diseases – heart and lung disease, cancer and diabetes – are having a negative economic impact on both the developed and developing world and should thus be adequately addressed by domestic and international policy makers" (The Oxford Health Allicance, 2006).

www.sehn.org

Chronic diseases and development

A landmark global alliance between leading scientists and four of the world’s largest NGOs brings together evidence from a 5-year collaboration with almost 100 of the world’s best NCD experts and proposes a short-list of five priority interventions to tackle the increasing global crisis.

www.thelancet.com

Chronic Disease Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Whose Business Is It?

Public health specialists and clinicians alike agree that Humanity faces a global pandemic of chronic diseases in the 21st century. This article discusses the implications of this pandemic on another global issue, the health workforce. Because both issues are particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), it focuses on this region and uses Cameroon as a case in point. It first gauges the epidemic of chronic conditions in SSA. Then it discusses the implications of chronic conditions for the reshaping of health systems and the health workforce. It concludes by making a strong case for the building up and strengthening the health workforce, insisting on the crucial role of nurses, their training, and involvement in chronic disease management (Alexander Bischoff et al., 2009)

www.mdpi.com

MMS Bulletin 115: Chronische Krankheiten: Globale Gesundheit vor neuen Herausforderungen

Medicus Mundi Schweiz hat im Januar 2008 einen Reader zum 8. Symposium der schweizerischen Gesunheitszusammenarbeit herausgegeben. Mit Beiträgen zu Hintergründen, Präventions-kampagnen und Projekten der internationalen Gesundheitszusammenarbeit zum Thema Chronische Krankheiten. Lesen Sie die Beiträge online:

www.medicusmundi.ch

Armut, Krise und Globalisierung: Chronische Krankheiten haben eine Geschichte

Auch in Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern haben sich die chronischen Krankheiten zur häufigsten Todesursache entwickelt. Dahinter stehen soziale, politische und ökonomische Ursachen. Die internationale Gesundheitspolitik steht vor einer grossen Herausforderung.

www.medicusmundi.ch

Social Determinants of Health: Chronic Diseases - Individual choices and the social circumstances

The social gradient in health, seen for a number of health outcomes including certain non-communicable chronic diseases, indicates that the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age influence their health. The World Health Organization´s Commission on Social Determinants of Health made recommendations on ways to tackle avoidable systematic differences in health between groups and to improve population health. (Ruth Bell in the Bulletin of Medicus Mundi Switzerland No 115, February 2010)

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The implications of trade liberalization for diet and health: A case study from Central America

Central America has undergone extensive trade liberalization over the past two decades, and has recently signed a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The region is also experiencing a dual burden of malnutrition with the growth of dietary patterns associated with the global 'nutrition transition'. This study describes the relationship between trade liberalization policies and food imports and availability, and draws implications for diet and health, using Central America as a case study region.

www.globalizationandhealth.com

Where Have All the Donors Gone? Scarce Donor Funding for Non-Communicable Diseases

Global development assistance for health (DAH) was estimated at $21.8 billion in 2007. A recent assessment shows that official development assistance for health reached $26.4 billion in 2008, surpassing all prior years. No specific mention is made of DAH for NCDs in developing countries in either study. This paper aims to fill that gap. We conducted an analysis of donor spending on NCDs in developing countries from 2001 to 2008 that reveals that less than 3 percent ($503 million out of $22 billion) of overall DAH was dedicated to NCDs in 2007 (By Rachel Nugent and Andrea B. Feigl).

www.cgdev.org

Das blinde Auge der Präventionsarbeit

Dank dem UNO-Weltkongress zu nicht-übertragbaren Krankheiten im kommenden September erhalten die Chronischen Krankheiten endlich einen höheren Platz auf der globalen Gesundheitsagenda. Martin Leschhorn Strebel* hofft, dass nun endlich auch die strukturellen Ursachen der globalen Epidemie angegangen werden.

A tobacco-free world by 2040?

A Lancet Series.

The Lancet In it's edition of 14 March 2015 "The Lancet" launches a campaign for a tobacco-free world by 2040. The editors write: "Current global anti-tobacco strategies are failing. We endorse the Series' call for a UN high-level Summit on tobacco use to reinvigorate global and national efforts to achieve a tobacco-free world by 2040. The time has come for not only greater WHO leadership, but also leadership from the UN Secretary-General, because tobacco is not just a threat to health, it is also a threat to sustainable human development." (Photo: Jonathan Kos-Read/flickr)

www.thelancet.com

Disability and Non Communicable Diseases

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Noncommunicable Diseases - joint statement by MMI and PHM at World Health Assembly

“It is disappointing that there is no reference to the work of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) in the report. Unhealthy behaviors do play an important role in determining NCDs however there are structural determinants like education, income, gender and ethnicity which are underlying causes of NCDs and behavioral risk factors” (Medicus Mundi International, May 2011).

www.medicusmundi.org

Statement of concern on lack of clarity on role of industry for June UN interactive hearing and September UN High Level Meeting 2011

Our organisations strongly support the objective of raising the profile of NCDs globally. This statement concerns the lack of clarity regarding the role of the private sector at the upcoming Civil Society Interactive Hearing in New York and UN High Level Meeting (UN HLM) in September (Baby Milk Action, 18 June 2011).

info.babymilkaction.org

Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis

The UN High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on NCDs in September, 2011, provides an unrivalled opportunity to create a sustained rights-based global movement to tackle NCDs, analogous to the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV infection and AIDS a decade ago, which concluded that dealing with the disease was central to the development agenda. Political leadership at the highest level, with international coordination and consensus for priority actions and interventions are crucial responses to the crisis in NCDs and to facilitate national action (Robert Beaglehole et al., April 2011).

www.thelancet.com

Calling the world to action on diabetes: an advocacy toolkit

The International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) is leading a global campaign to ensure the UN Summit on NCDs produces the most effective outcomes for the global diabetes community. For this purpose the IDF has launched an Advocacy Toolkit that aims to bridge global to local advocacy through information, guidance and key tools and resources.

www.idf.org

The Burden of Cancer in Developing Countries

The report is part of the Council’s Cancer Advocacy and Learning Initiative, a project to raise awareness about the burden of cancer in developing countries and to develop policy, advocacy and research agendas to direct the global health community’s work on this topic of concern (A Global Health Council Report on the Cancer Advocacy and Learning Institute, June 2010).

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Strengthening of accountability systems to create healthy food environments and reduce global obesity

Lancet Series on Obesity

The Lancet As part of a Lancet's Series on Obesity the authors of this article propose a four step accountability framework for creating healty food environments and reducing global obesity. "The framework identifies multiple levers for change, including quasiregulatory and other approaches that involve government-specified and government-monitored progress of private sector performance, government procurement mechanisms, improved transparency, monitoring of actions, and management of conflicts of interest. Strengthened accountability systems would support government leadership and stewardship, constrain the influence of private sector actors with major conflicts of interest on public policy development, and reinforce the engagement of civil society in creating demand for healthy food environments and in monitoring progress towards obesity action objectives."

www.thelancet.com

Health Promotion: Concepts and Practices

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A Framework to Monitor and Evaluate the Implementation: Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health

The overall aims of this document are to: provide guidance to Member States on monitoring and evaluation of national diet and physical activity policies and to assist them in identifying specific indicators to measure the implementation of these policies.

www.who.int

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (2003) - Resolution (WHA 56.1) adopted by the World Health Assembly

The objective of this Convention and its protocols is to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke by providing a framework for tobacco control measures to be implemented by the Parties at the national, regional and international levels in order to reduce continually and substantially the prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.”

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Noncommunicable diseases and mental health

The mission of the Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Cluster (NMH) is to provide leadership and the evidence base for international action on surveillance, prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, mental health disorders, malnutrition, violence and injuries, and disabilities.

www.who.int

The NCD Alliance

The NCD Alliance uses targeted advocacy and outreach to ensure that NCDs are recognized as a major cause of poverty, a barrier to economic development and a global emergency. This is done by working with a wide range of partners and organizations, speaking with a united voice at key international meetings, and pressing governments to recognize that NCDs are a global development priority requiring an urgent response. (…) "We are an informal alliance of four international federations (IDF, UICC, worldheart, The Union) representing the four main NCDs outlined in the World Health Organization’s 2008-2013 Action Plan for NCDs: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease."

www.ncdalliance.org

The NCD Action Network

The NCD Action Network is a civil society movement, increasing resources and inspiring action to address the global non-communicable disease (“NCD”) epidemic. (…) Recognizing the importance of mobilizing civic coalitions, leadership and heads of state to ensure a successful UN summit in September, the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN) launched NCD Action as a social movement to inspire civic action around the world. (…) “We are a global alliance of students, professionals and concerned citizens committed to improving the health of communities worldwide by addressing the growing epidemic of NCDs. We believe that the world needs a social movement to drive political action for the prevention of NCDs.”

ncdaction.org

Consortium for NCD prevention and control in sub-Saharan Africa

Recognizing the increasing relevance of lifestyle-related NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa, the Department of Health, UK in partnership with the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and the African Institute for Health & Development (AIHD) initiated and facilitated a process of supporting countries in the region to help advocate and maximise their efforts for NCD prevention and control.

www.aihdint.org

The Oxford Health Alliance

We know that awareness of chronic epidemic disease has increased over the past few years and this is illustrated by the formation of NCDnet, an initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which is working in the area of non-communicable disease, and the development of a collaboration between eight Medical Research Councils (MRC) called the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD). The next logical step for OxHA is to move from awareness raising to implementing community-based research, driving policy change and developing communications.

www.oxha.org