Global conference on NCD in September

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean regional office will hold an international conference on the implementation of the UN Political Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) in the region from Sept. 10 to 12 in Riyadh, a senior official of the ministry told Arab News yesterday.
The forthcoming conference will follow up on a global strategy to combat noncommunicable diseases adopted in September 2011 by governments to combat noncommunicable diseases.
Proclaiming the spread of noncommunicable diseases, a socioeconomic and development challenge of epidemic proportions, governments pledged to work with the United Nations to adopt before the end of 2012 targets to combat heart disease, cancers, diabetes and lung disease and to devise voluntary policies that cut smoking and slash the high salt, sugar and fat content in foods that caused them.
Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News the conference, which will focus on lifestyles and noncommunicable diseases, will be held under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
Representatives from the ministries of health, foreign affairs and planning, the League of Arab States, United Nations funding agencies, programs and agencies, international financial institutions, development banks and other key international organizations are expected to attend the conference.
According to Al-Mirghalani, the conference will review and adopt a set of monitoring indicators for noncommunicable disease surveillance systems and share strategies, tools and cost-effective interventions that countries in the region may have implemented in relation to surveillance, prevention and improved health care for noncommunicable diseases.
He added that it will also articulate a road map for capacity-building for the region based on a review of current regional and national capacity
Al-Mirghalani said: “This conference represents a unique opportunity for governments and nongovernmental stakeholders in the region to reassess their commitment to multisector action on the relevant issues.”

He said it would also strengthen regional cooperation, facilitate healthy lifestyles and choices and strengthen national capacities for all aspects related to the prevention and control of these diseases.
The average life expectancy has increased in the eastern Mediterranean from 51 years in 1970 to about 70 years, as have the mortality rates of children under the age of five from 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 68 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008.