NCD Alliance

The WHO EMRO Regional Committee Meeting concluded on 21 October in Tunis, Tunisia. In his opening address, Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, focussed attention on links between climate change and NCDs, with rising levels of air pollution and environmental neglect across the Region contributing to increased risk of NCDs.

As part of the NCD Alliance Program ‘Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action’, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) in partnership with PAHO/WHO and CARPHA is holding today a Caribbean Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) meeting in Dominica.

The NCD Alliance has joined with WHO and ITU, the UN information and communication technologies (ICTs) health agency​, in a ground breaking new partnership to focus on the use of mobile technology to improve NCDs prevention and treatment.

Monday 20 October is World Osteoporosis Day, with a focus this year on osteoporosis in men. Although one in five men aged 50 and over will suffer a fracture due to osteoporosis, the debilitating disease is all-too-often neglected both by the men at risk, and by health professionals.

The burden of the disease is high in the world’s ageing male population: One-third of all hip fractures worldwide occur in men, and compared to women they are twice as likely to die in the year following the fracture.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$100 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to improve maternal, newborn and child health in Myanmar.

The Essential Health Services Access Project is expected to benefit about 4 million pregnant women and young children across all of Myanmar’s 330 townships. The Project aims to increase coverage of critical health services that provide quality care, with a focus on the health of mothers, infants and children.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will play an important part of the programme of the upcoming 2014 World Cancer Congress, with a suite of plenaries, sessions and side events that are of relevance to the wider NCD community beyond cancer.

Download the programme here

Tobacco use is one of the major risk factors driving the global epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. NCD s are a major challenge to health and development in the 21st  century. They are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, exacting a heavy and growing toll on the physical health and economic security of all countries, particularly low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

A government program to provide health insurance for catastrophic illness to households below the poverty line in Karnataka, lowered both mortality rates and out-of-pocket expenses for the residents, according to a recent evaluation published in the leading global health journal The BMJ. The program is implemented by the Karnataka government with support from the World Bank Group.

The first “Civil Society Report on the Situation of NCDs in Brazil” recently launched by the Alliance for Tobacco Control (ACT+) is now available in English.

The 53rd Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) ended on 3rd October, following a week of discussions and decisions about major public health issues in the Region of the Americas.

“The debate has been lively and enriching as we sought to reach consensus with respect and sensitivity on how to collectively address the pressing public health challenges that confront our countries and our region", said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne.