Paro, Bhutan | 7 September 2022
The Member countries of WHO
South-East Asia Region today resolved to accelerate progress for prevention and
control of non-communicable diseases, including oral and eye care.
“The Region must build on the progress made in the prevention and control of
noncommunicable diseases. Though trends are in the right direction, we need to
accelerate efforts to achieve global, regional, and national goals,” said Dr
Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region.
Noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic
respiratory disease and diabetes, account for almost two-thirds of all deaths
in the WHO South-East Asian Region. Nearly half of these deaths occurred
prematurely between the ages of 30 and 69 years in 2021. The meeting noted the
continuing high burden of disease and death due to cardiovascular diseases,
cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, large number of untreated
cases of dental caries and oral health conditions, and challenges in the
provision of comprehensive eye care.
The Member countries endorsed the Implementation Roadmap for the
prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases in South-East Asia
2022–2030, and two action plans - for oral health in South-East Asia 2022–2030
and the Action Plan for integrated people-centered eye care in South-East Asia
2022–2030 during the ongoing Seventy-fifth Regional Committee Session of WHO
South-East Asia.
The regional NCD Implementation Roadmap 2022–2030 provides strategic directions
to accelerate the national NCD response through the primary health care and
universal health coverage routes to improve access, coverage and quality of NCD
prevention and control interventions for the achievement of the 2025 and 2030
NCD targets.
Oral diseases are among the most common NCDs in the South-East Asian Region,
with cases of untreated dental caries, severe periodontal diseases and
edentulism estimated to be more than 900 million in 2019. The South-East Asia
Region has the highest oral cancer incidence and mortality rates among all WHO
regions. The disease burden also shows strong inequalities with higher
prevalence and severity in poor and disadvantaged populations. The Action Plan
for Oral Health in South-East Asia 2022–2030 provides guidance to Member countries
to develop impactful national actions to improve oral health through aligned
approaches within the ambit of universal health coverage.
The Regional Action Plan for integrated people-centered eye care in South-East
Asia 2022–2030 aims to provide ‘equitable access to high-quality, comprehensive
eye health services to achieve universal eye health by 2030’ and accelerate
progress towards achieving the global targets of refractive error and cataract
surgery and two Regional targets for diabetic retinopathy and trachoma
elimination.
The resolution calls for strengthening policy and legislative frameworks for
this purpose, as well as advancing primary health care, universal health
coverage, human resources, accountability and quality of national health information
systems, and the crucial role of data and information systems at all levels to
promote accountability.
“Decisive leadership and political commitment can provide the policy and
legislative frameworks needed to integrate high-quality, comprehensive oral
health and eye health services in primary health care to achieve the targets,”
Dr Singh said.
The countries committed to accelerate progress against NCDs within the ambit of
universal health coverage, adopting and implementing the guidance and tools from
the Implementation Roadmap for the prevention and control of noncommunicable
diseases in South-East Asia 2022–2030.
WHO committed to provide adequate technical support to Member countries in the
implementation of the three plans including strengthening of the related
monitoring and evaluation systems, and collaborate with partners and all
stakeholders for aligned and effective implementation of the Strategic Action
Plans.