Progress lacking on UN goals for lifestyle diseases: Report

NEW DELHI: A paper published in The Lancet on March 26, stated that reaching United Nation goals on diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes by 2030, will require an average investment of US $18 million a year. The World Health Organisation has established that these and other non-communicable diseases, including stroke and chronic respiratory diseases, kill 41 million people worldwide each year. It also reported that 77 per cent of such deaths occur in low and middle income countries.

The report is based on a global analysis that states that the majority of countries have made only a little progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4, which aims to reduce premature deaths from these types of diseases by a third, between 2015 and 2030. It mentioned that there is still hope to achieve the target for most of these illnesses with the right combination of interventions including targeted policies to cut smoking, alcohol abuse, and unhealthy diets. The authors have said that non-communicable diseases need to be part of national preparedness and response plans. According to the report, the financial investment put in now will reap major financial rewards in the process.

The health policy paper recommends 21 interventions to help 123 low- and middle-income countries achieve the SDG target. However, substantial technical and financial assistance may be needed from the global community, it warns. The report estimated that an additional investment of US $140 billion will be needed between 2023 and 2030 to achieve the target, which could prevent 39 million deaths over the period, which will in turn reap economic rewards of US$ 2.7 trillion worldwide. The experts noted that alongside domestic spending by governments to meet the goal, international development agencies will have to step up and provide catalytic aid.

Mayowa Owolabi, Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, told SciDev.Net in an interview that a population-based multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral approach including policymakers, patients, and indeed the entire populace across the life course is required. He added that this shall include lifestyle interventions, creating an enabling environment that supports physical activities, and a healthy food value chain for prevention of multiple non-communicable diseases.