World Health Assembly endorses global plan for NCDs prevention, control

The Sixty-sixth session of the World Health Assembly endorsed the World Health Organization (WHO) global plan for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) 2013-2020 on Monday in Geneva. Statistics from WHO showed that 63 percent of deaths in the world in 2008 resulted from NCDs, which constituted a major public health challenge and impeded social and economic development across the world. The approved global action plan, mainly focusing on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, was aimed at reducing preventable and avoidable morbidity, mortality and disability due to NCDs through multi-sectoral collaboration at national, regional and global levels to ensure populations reach the highest attainable standards at every age. The action plan also set up nine voluntary global targets, including a 25-percent relative reduction in risk of premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases. In addition, the action plan comprised a comprehensive global monitoring framework for the prevention and control of NCDs to monitor trends and to assess progress made in the implementation of national strategies and plans on NCDs. The framework included a set of 25 indicators, including premature mortality from NCDs, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, salt/sodium intake, and tobacco use among others The annual World Health Assembly urged member states to promote, establish, support and strengthen engagement or collaborative partnerships with a broad multi-sectoral approach and to consider the development of national NCDs monitoring frameworks. It also requested the Director-General to develop terms of reference for a global coordination mechanism to coordinate the activities of the United Nations system and promote engagement, international cooperation, collaboration and accountability among all stakeholders.