COPENHAGEN –  In Lebanon, international donors are supporting a network of public primary health care centers to test for diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), offering treatment equally to Lebanese nationals and Syrian refugees who are unlikely to return anytime soon to their war-torn homeland.  In Kenya, a new national insurance law aims to make […] Continue reading ->
COPENHAGEN –  While conflict and natural disasters are usually played out in the media against dramatic scenes of mass casualty response and rescue teams, there’s an iceberg of chronic health conditions that can be even more life threatening and these need far greater attention in emergency response.  That is the theme of a global high […] Continue reading ->
Ultra-processed products are usurping healthier, minimally processed foods in much of the world. Breakfasts are too often pre-packaged and sugar-laden, while lunches are loaded with sodium and wrapped in plastic – products that have been transformed using industrial processes and filled with additives to make them highly palatable. The widespread consumption of these foods and […] Continue reading ->
Some 300 million people have been protected from becoming smokers in the 15 years since WHO launched the ‘MPOWER’ package of recommended policies for reducing smoking prevalence in countries worldwide, declared Kelly Henning, of Bloomberg Philanthropies, at a press conference in Geneva this week.  She was speaking at a WHO briefing launching the 2023 WHO […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated patients’ difficulties in accessing medication for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), but there is a range of measures countries can take to mitigate this – and a pandemic accord could address some of the structural weaknesses. COVID-19 had a disproportionate and far-reaching impact on people living with NCDs. Not only were they more […] Continue reading ->
When Elvis Ndikum Achiri, a long-time veteran of tobacco control campaigns, began collecting data on air pollution in his community in Cameroon, he was surprised to discover how many people around him, both young and old, suffered from related illnesses even though they had never smoked – including a beloved high school teacher who had […] Continue reading ->
An impossibly long list of member states lined up to address universal health coverage (UHC) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the World Health Assembly on Thursday afternoon, indicating the centrality of these issues for countries. There was near-universal support for primary health services to be the backbone of UHC, with disease prevention as the other […] Continue reading ->