Healthier children, happier communities

Jun 03, 2018 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Movie stars, social celebrities and business magnates, a few years ago, were often pictured smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol – habits which were imitated by their adoring fans, especially children.
Traditional lifestyles, in poorer countries such as ours, were transformed by copying the glamorous habits of the rich and famous. Food preparation and consumption shifted from the home to the street.
Residents of hinterland and rural regions now readily resort to restaurants selling sugary beverages and salty, oily processed foods in preference to fresh, home-grown and local produce.
Schools without playgrounds and physical training and sports programmes for children but with cafeterias where the consumption of ‘Cola’ and candy were more likely to be available than coconut water are commonplace. Minibuses replaced the once ubiquitous bicycles as the preferred means of going to school.
The consequences of such cultural carelessness are everywhere evident. More than half of Guyana’s adult population suffer from one of the main non-communicable diseases. Almost seven out of every ten deaths of Guyanese, aged 23-60 years, are caused by cancers, chronic lung diseases, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
Non-communicable diseases cause illness and may frequently result in premature death. They reduce human productivity and exact a huge cost on individuals and the state. They are a silent epidemic.
Non-communicable diseases were responsible for 70 per cent of the 56 million global deaths in 2015, the majority of which are cardiovascular diseases which accounted for 45 per cent of deaths; cancers, 22 per cent; chronic respiratory diseases, 10 per cent and diabetes 4 per cent, in that year.
These statistics should make it clear that the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases is essential to ensuring human health and, by extension, bringing up healthier children and happier communities.
The Caribbean Community was quick to recognise the dangers of non-communicable diseases. CARICOM Heads of Government convened a special Regional Summit on Chronic Non-communicable Diseases on September 15, 2007 – four years prior to the United Nations High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases.
The ‘Summit’ of Caribbean leaders issued a fifteen-point declaration, known as the Declaration of Port-of-Spain: Uniting to stop the epidemic of chronic NCDs. The ‘Declaration’ urged the establishment of National Commissions on NCDs, or analogous bodies, to plan and coordinate the comprehensive prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.
Guyana, in fulfilment of the ‘Declaration’, developed the Guyana Strategic Plan for the Integrated Prevention and Control of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and their Risk Factors 2013-2020.
The Government of Guyana recognized the importance of combatting NCDs and established a National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases on September 12, 2014. It would be impossible to ensure satisfactory standards of public health unless the highest priority was accorded to the prevention and control of NCDs.
The re-launch of the ‘Commission’ recognises the need for increased public information, fresh initiatives and the implementation of programmes to promote a revised NCDs strategy and institute mechanisms. The Government, therefore, propose a three-pronged approach towards reducing the incidence of NCDs:
– Information. Countrywide public information is necessary if prevention is to become the cornerstone of our response the NCD epidemic.

The public must be better informed about the need for lifestyles changes and choice in order to reduce risk from the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.

– Initiation: Initiatives, led not only by government but, also, by citizens and celebrities, civil society, non-governmental organisations, the media and trade unions – can help to drive an intensified national response to the threat of non-communicable diseases.

– Implementation: A comprehensive and multi-sectoral approach is needed to implement measures for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.

The Guyana Strategic Plan for the Integrated Prevention and Control of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and their Risk Factors 2013-2020 needs to be updated and needs to be complemented by the implementation of an action plan aimed at preventing and controlling the incidence of NCDs.
Prevention of NCDs is a pressing problem. The burden of NCDs falls mainly on the poor, where most premature deaths from these diseases occur. Reducing risk factors will not only save lives but will also provide an impetus for the economic and social development of hinterland and rural regions.
Non-communicable diseases are a grave threat to the health of our people. This Commission’s work, therefore, will be decisive in determining the extent to which the good life can be realised.
The National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in Guyana can lead the information, initiation and implementation campaigns for healthier children and happier communities in Guyana.

(The above remarks were delivered by President David Granger on December 18, 2017 at the re-launching of the National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases)

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