The NCD Alliance is pleased to invite media representatives to an on-the-record briefing on COVID-19 and Noncommunicable diseases: a healthcare workforce perspective. The media briefing will take place on Thursday 19th November 2020 and will provide an opportunity to discuss best practices and lessons learned so far in selected countries.
Emerging evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic shows many intersections between COVID-19 and NCDs. People living with NCDs (PLWNCDs) are more vulnerable to COVID-19, with a substantially higher risk of becoming severely ill or dying from the virus:
- People with COVID-19 infection and cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes are at least twice as likely to die;
- People with comprised immune systems (ongoing cancer treatment, diabetes, COPD, people on steroid treatment, etc.) are at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19;
- People living with three or more co-morbidities (hypertension, diabetes, COPD/asthma, TB, obesity, smokers) are at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19.
Additionally, nurses, midwives and health workers around the world have been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, enduring an increased workload. NCD related clinical staff have been deployed to provide COVID-19 relief at a time when countries are suffering from historic underinvestment in NCD prevention and treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has come back to bite us as care and treatment essential to the wellbeing, recovery and even survival of people living with NCDs are being disrupted in almost every country.
This media briefing will provide the opportunity for media to hear the perspectives of from and talk to both representatives from nursing organisations and doctors and nurses currently working in COVID-19 wards.
Please register to confirm your participation by COB Tuesday, November 17.
When
Thursday, 19 November 2020 at 13:00-14:00 GMT / 14:00-15:00 CET
Moderator
- Katie Dain, CEO, NCD Alliance
Speakers
- Elizabeth Iro, Chief Nursing Officer, World Health Organization, Switzerland
- Howard Catton, CEO, International Council of Nurses, UK
- Gedeon Ngoga, NCD nurse and educator, Rwanda
- Adel El Sayed, President of the Egyptian NCD Alliance, Egypt
- Crystal Oldman, Chief Executive, The Queen´s Nursing Institute
- Apoorva Gomber, Doctor living with T1 diabetes, India
Further information
Michael Kessler, [email protected], +34 655 792 699