Allianza de ENT

South Africa's Department of Health is currently considering whether to support enforcement of a "sugar tax" in line with aims to reduce sugar consumption across the country.

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In a meeting to mark World Cancer Day, Ethiopia's First Lady Her Excellency Mrs. Roman Tesfaye brought together major stakeholders working to prevent and control cancer at the Prime Minister’s Office on February 3, 2014. Among the over seventy invited guests were the Minister of Health, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of Women, Youth and Sports, parlamentarians, and representatives of UNFPA, UNAIDS, USAID, Pathfinder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and NGOs such as the Mathiwos Wondu-YeEthiopia Cancer Society and the Ethiopian NCD Consortium.

The World Health Organization and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance today published the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life. The Atlas is the first document to identify the need for and availability of palliative care globally.

From the WHO-AFRO.

On the 21st of January, the Ethiopian legislation ratified the FCTC thanks to the advocacy of national partners.

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Experts urge the UK Department for International Development (DfID) to produce an overall strategy for disability, and prioritise the issue in the future development framework and aid allocation.

Click here to read more via The Guardian.

Congratulations to Healthy Caribbean Coalition President, Professor Sir Trevor Hassell, on being awarded Knighthood in Barbados! The NCD Alliance is pleased to work together with HCC and Professor Sir Hassell as we advance the fight against NCDs in the Caribbean region.

Read more about this honor here.

Given the dramatic increase in the numbers of overweight or obese people in the past 30 years, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has published a new report, Future Diets, which traces how the changes in diet - more fat, more meat, more sugar and bigger portions - have led to a looming health crisis.

Recent newspaper coverage reports that the World Health Organisation is considering new guidlines that would halve the amount of sugar that it recommends people should have in their diet.

A confidential draft paper agreed by WHO experts states and leaked to the The Sunday Times proposes that there should be a “reduction of free sugars intake to 5% or less of total energy”.

Many obesity and health experts say such a change cannot come quickly enough, given skyrocketing obesity rates across the globe.

After months of consultations with relevant stakeholders and a discussion at the 66th World Health Assembly in May 2013, Member States endorsed a final draft of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020.

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) has recently launched a report on World COPD Day entitled Respiratory diseases in the world. Realities of Today – Opportunities for Tomorrow.