Date: 6/9/2008
TUMSPR News: In a national conference held at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), on 8 - 9 June 2008, Dr. Lankarani, the Health Minister, stressed the need for integration to overcome the growing trend of non-communicable diseases.
Dr. Lankarani, by welcoming the guests, said that, "I hope this conference would be fruitful for the health system”.
On NCDs he said that countries had come to realize the increases in the prevalence of these diseases as much as 60%, especially in low and middle-income countries.
The minister said that different approaches and reactions had been done which the most prominent of all had been the medical approach with lots of programs and costs but with no tangible results and even with dangerous aftermaths.
As examples, the minister said “In an article published by NEJM, a reduction of HbA1c from 7.5% to 6.5% percent, not only didn’t necessarily accompany good results but it inversely increased mortality rate in a three-year follow up, or in another research with three years of follow up, it was shown that drug-eluting stents were accompanied with higher mortalities than common stents. Therefore, the world should change its outlook from medical to health-oriented approaches". He said that “Fortunately, the state of these diseases is known to us in Iran and we have had quality researches on them and also on the risk factors of these diseases".
On aging populations, the minister said that “Our population is aging by a 5% growth and in future we will witness 10-20% growth rates _ an alarm to think of the situation in due time”. On screening for NCDs he named phenyl ketonuria (PKU) and Iodine deficiency screenings as successful programs in the past and also the establishment of diabetes clinics.
The minister said that “It seems that we need to integrate [the tasks] not only in the ministry of Health but also in other ministries to achieve higher health standards in the society”.
In the forth five-year development plan of Iran, the Higher Health Council, headed by President Ahmadinejad, his first deputy and nine ministers, we have passed remarkable resolutions such as the one determining the amount of trans fats in edible oil, parallel to effective advertising to change people’s taste for consuming these kinds of oils. The consumption of hydrogenated oil has reached 55% from 87% three years ago and the mean amount of trans fats has reached to less than 10% from a previous 27%; in other words reduction of every 1% trams fats nearly correlates with 1% reduction in cardiovascular diseases".
'Another achievement has been the ratification of the National Anti-tobacco Act at the parliament and by the cooperation of the Health ministry, Ministry of Industries, Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, Ministry of Commerce, Interior ministry and IRIB'.
"Prohibiting tobacco sale to people below 18, and advertising against tobacco use in public places and public transport systems, tags on cigarette packs denoting its harmful effects have been other undertaken tasks as is the establishment of 2400 new sports facilities in the past three years, especially in deprived areas; the figure being twice the size of sports facilities built in the past 25 years”.
"Considering demographic changes in Iran and the burden of NCDs, we should place the priority on family doctors as 21 million people in rural areas are under their coverage as we have had better control for hypertension there. Likewise, we have to integrate care for NCDs in the services provided by family doctors".
The minister stressed the need to assess technologies and said "It has been 2-3 years since a committee was set to prevent the import of non-useful technologies which this initiative lead to a purposeful selection of technologies”.
He continued his speech by saying, "Although NCDs have almost common risk factors and their control seems to be easy theoretically, but considering the complexities of human life, we have to effectively work on education and build culture to promote health”.
“Finally we need dynamic policy-making to be useful for different parts of the country with diverse geographical characteristics.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/english/news/detail.asp?newsID=7565
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