Guyana calls for global action on non-communicable diseases
THE United Nations (UN) General Assembly convened its second high level meeting recently, with the aim of implementing strategies to tackle the worldwide issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The forum discussed the way forward, focusing particularly on developmental and other challenges and social and economic impacts, especially for developing countries.
Speaking on the occasion, in New York, Guyana’s Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said, with the convening of the gathering and the adoption of the Political Declaration, NCDs will, now, rightly assume a place of prominence as a global threat that needs to be addressed as an emergency.
He said the world, to date, appropriately acknowledged the NCDs as comprising a new front in the fight to promote global public health and against poverty.
“We express profound gratitude to the Heads of Governments for their bold leadership to advance the fight against the NCDs,” he said.
Ramsammy congratulated the co-facilitators, Ambassador Wolfe of Jamaica and Ambassador Lucas of Luxembourg, for guiding negotiations which culminated with a consensus document on a timely basis.
The minister pointed to the fact that Guyana recognized, at an early stage, that the efficacy of efforts pursued at the national level needed to be complemented by regional and global consideration and action.
“Guyana has, therefore, played an active role in advancing the NCDs agenda at the regional and global levels, including calling, since 2001, for an MDG + to include globally-led agreements for the fight against the NCDs and made it a focus during its Presidency of the 61st Session of the World Health Assembly,” Ramsammy said.
He said Guyana has worked with the other member States of CARICOM to ensure a regionally coordinated response to NCDs and, in this regard, the Caribbean grouping was instrumental in facilitating the General Assembly’s consideration of the issue.
“It was not accidental. The decision was informed by the gravity of the development challenge that NCDs posed for all CARICOM member States,” the minister pointed out.

MANY MEASURES              

He alluded to the fact that the declaration contains many measures that will save lives in the short term and contribute to creating a healthy society which will assist in preventing NCDs in the future and also contribute to reducing and eliminating poverty.
“We, therefore, call for the full implementation of the Political Declaration, including early agreement on global targets, a monitoring framework, and a substantive and collaborative partnership of global stakeholders to facilitate continued action on NCDs among others,” he challenged.
Ramsammy said it is for this reason there is a call on all Member States to work together to support the follow-up processes, such as the development of national plans by 2013, the development of global targets and indicators, including the overall goal of reducing preventable deaths from NCDs by 25 per cent by 2025, to monitor trends and to assess progress made in the implementation of national strategies and plans.
Guyana supports the appointment of an envoy or representative on NCDs to promote aggressive action and foster national and regional collaboration.    
“We look forward to the strong implementation of the Declaration and remain hopeful that, by 2014, a comprehensive review and assessment will be undertaken by the General Assembly that there will be many positive substantive developments in the global effort to address NCDs,” Ramsammy said.
He said Guyana believes there is a real nexus between the existing MDGs and the fight against the NCDs.
Minister Ramsammy said that greater consideration must be placed on the existing MDG goal and its 2013 target, also if it is to meet the need for better access to affordable, quality medicines, technology and diagnostics.
Similarly, existing MDGs address the need for better nutrition, improved and expanded immunisation, elimination of gender disparities and improved environmental control.
Ramsammy explained that there is also a need for more robust implementation of the World Health Organisations’s (WHO’s) Framework Convention on Tobacco control (FCTC) 2003.
“As a common goal, with 2015 as a deadline, we should adopt picture labelling warnings on tobacco products, ensure smoke-free zones and introduce greater taxation for tobacco products,” he suggested.
“We must, more effectively, implement the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health for the Prevention and Control of NCDs (2004) to improve nutrition and physical activity among our people,” Ramsammy maintained.
He said Guyana believes that global minimum standards for trans-fat and salt are appropriate actions and countries must not be shy in applying such.
“We believe that the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol (2010) must be strictly applied” the minister declared.
He said it is in this regard that Guyana has joined India in declaring October 2 as ‘No Alcohol Day’ to highlight the ravages of it on our societies, noting also that Guyana is of the view that building a sustainable across-the-board surveillance and health information system with standardised registries can happen with these intervention in the health sector.
RISK SURVEYS

“A rich tradition of behaviour and biological surveillance surveys are developing in many developing countries. We need to merge these efforts with the global tobacco surveys and the risk surveys in school,” Ramsammy proposed.
Guyana’s call is for the rest of the world to join in celebrating Caribbean Wellness Day on the second Saturday of September each year, a day established by the Caribbean Heads of Government at their Summit in Port of Spain in 2007.
“We believe we should declare the second week of September as Global Wellness Week, allowing citizens throughout the world to commit to the wellness revolution. We must agree on a package of publicly guaranteed health services for the NCDs that becomes an entitlement for citizens everywhere,” he said.
The minister said, too, that, while Guyana is grateful that the high level meeting has now made response to the NCDs a priority development issue, more can be done especially in the field of neuro-psychiatric disorders.
“We are disappointed that there are only references to the neuro-psychiatric disorders. We believe these disorders impact too greatly on disease burden and should be given more consideration at the global level than is presently provided for” he said.