WHO EXECUTIVE BOARD PASSES UNANIMOUS RESOLUTION URGING ACTION PLAN TO PREVENT CHRONIC DISEASES
The World Health Organization’s Executive Board recommends that the World Health Assembly adopt a resolution calling for the preparation of a five-year action plan for the prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.
Meeting 22 to 28 January 2007 in Geneva, the Executive Board requested a plan that “sets out priorities, actions, a time frame and performance indicators for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases between 2008 and 2013 at global and regional levels.”
It also called “for intensified implementation and monitoring of national plans for prevention and control of chronic noncommunicable diseases, including the further development of an intervention to manage the conditions of people at high risk of such diseases.”
Vote wins praise
World Heart Federation Chief Executive Officer Janet Voûte praised the Executive Board recommendation as “a common sense proposition that much more attention must be paid to cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, since they account for 60% of deaths, with 80% of them occurring in low- and middle-income countries.”
Ms Voûte’s statement, read by Chief Operating Officer Helen Alderson before the vote, underscored “the critical importance of adopting an action plan,” especially as “cardiovascular disease causes an estimated 17.5 million deaths annually and as such is the leading cause of death around the globe.”
The World Heart Federation was one of the seven nongovernmental organizations invited to address the WHO Executive Board.
“Countries need to acknowledge the threat of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases and take action now,” Ms Voûte said. “International and continental action plans are going to be precious tools for change that will help translate the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control into specific policy interventions and monitoring mechanisms.”
More money also is essential
Any action plan to prevent cardiovascular disease must be accompanied by “a dramatic increase in funding,” she said.
“Today, the chronic disease and tobacco programmes together represent 2.6% of all financing in the WHO Programme budget for 2006-2007. WHO must set an example by giving a more prominent place to chronic disease within its budget.”
She pledged that the World Heart Federation “will support the development and implementation of the action plan, will help in the monitoring of progress and will foster national coalitions.”
Others NGOs add their support
The six other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also supported the proposed resolution, though Consumers International added a cautionary note, saying the proposal was not concrete enough. Both Consumers International and the International Association for the Study of Obesity called for an international code for marketing food and beverages to children.
The International Diabetes Federation highlighted the urgency of the situation, drawing attention to the UN General Assembly’s recent declaration of diabetes as a global health threat.
Prevention focus urged
There were no substantial disagreements among the Member States represented on the board. Most of the remarks were expressions of solidarity with the goal of adequately addressing chronic diseases and suggestions for improving the draft resolution.
The delegate from the United States of America urged that the plan focus on prevention, that it offer precise prescriptions and that it focus on unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and tobacco. The Bolivian delegate seconded the US delegate’s comments and said that children’s health education also should be a priority. He also said that there is a need not to add years to life but life to years.
