It is great to be here with you today, talking about healthy lifestyles and health services.
My congratulations to China CDC on once again organizing this Healthy Lifestyles conference – a great opportunity for us all to discuss together how we can move this important agenda forward.
But let me start with the bad news.
The bad news is that there is a tsunami of chronic disease coming at us in China, right now, from just over the horizon. Tsunamis are devastating. They can wipe out vast numbers of people – with devastating effects on families, communities, and the economy.
I do not use the analogy of a tsunami to speak of NCDs lightly. But I do think it is apt: the burden of death and disease from NCDs around the world is gathering speed at a ferocious pace, and this is especially the case in China – where NCDs already account for 4 in every 5 deaths, many of these premature.
Just like a tsunami, NCDs are killing people in the prime of their productive lives, and this will increasingly be the case in the future if current trends continue.
So that is the bad news. But there is some good news.
The first piece of good news is that, unlike when most tsunamis strike, we have the equivalent of an early warning system in place, and we can do something about it!
We know that the growth in NCDs around the world, including in China, is driven largely by just 4 modifiable risk factors – smoking, excessive drinking of alcohol, unhealthy diet, and lack of physical activity.
If we look at the prevalence of these risk factors in our community now, we can predict what the future burden of disease caused by these risk factors will be. And it will be devastating.
And knowing this should jolt us – all of us: governments, communities, business – into action.
I know China CDC is working very hard to pull together all the data on risk factor prevalence and NCD incidence in China right now – this is a hugely important piece of work.
The second piece of good news is that we have tools that we know work to reduce the 4 all-important NCD risk factors. Full implementation of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, for example, would avert at least 12 million premature deaths in China between now and 2050.
That is 12 million families that would be spared the heartache and grief of losing a loved one before their time.
We could recite similarly astonishing numbers for the other risk factors and diseases – for example, a new study released last year shows China is now home to almost one-third of the world’s diabetes patients. This is a direct result of changes in lifestyles – more sedentary lifestyles, less healthy diets – in China over the last few decades.
One issue which I know you will talk about more during this conference, and which is close to my heart, is how we can use the Healthy Cities concept to address the 4 big NCD risk factors.
Many cities in China are already leading the way on this – for example, many cities around the country such as Harbin and Shenzhen have introduced strong laws to make their public places smoke-free. We hope that Beijing will very soon follow suit and become smoke-free by 2015!
Smoke-free is one great example of how cities – including city governments, but also business, and the broader community – can work to make a difference to health outcomes. There are plenty of other NCD issues which Healthy Cities can address. We want to keep working with all of you to turn the Healthy Cities concept into a movement for health across the country – city after city and village after village, because this is one concrete way how we can empower and engage local communities and governments to join us in tackling the NCD challenge.
...And so that the benefits of living in a Healthy City can be made available to the hundreds of millions of Chinese.
And this brings me to my final point: no one ministry or sector alone can tackle the NCD challenge in China. Successfully confronting the NCDs challenge will require strong, determined action from across a range of sectors: health and other government ministries, health services, as well as from industry, the media, and the community at large.
And of course, it requires individuals to change their own behaviour – stopping smoking, reducing drinking, talking the stairs instead of the elevator, the bike or walk instead of the car.
I hope this conference will generate new ideas and fresh energy and enthusiasm for how we confront the very serious issue of NCDs in China – for how we engage a broad coalition of support in a movement for change.
If we can do this successfully, we may just stand a chance of stopping the tsunami before it hits the shore.
Thank you.