Date: 10/30/2010
TUMSPR News: The Resident Coordinator of UNDP in Iran, Ms. Consuelo Vidal, says that it is time to give non-communicable diseases its due attention in developing countries at the regional high-level consultation in Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases at TUMS on October 25, 2010.
At the regional high-level consultation in Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases at Tehran University of medical Sciences (TUMS) on October 25, 2010, the Resident Coordinator of UNDP in Iran, Ms. Consuelo Vidal, addressed the delegates EMRO countries, vice-chancellors for health from different medical sciences universities throughout the country and authorities from UN and WHO country offices in Iran. The speech is as follows:
Thank you very much for this very kind invitation, honorable Minister of Health, deputy minister, Dr. Niknam, the assistant Director General of WHO, delegates and colleagues from the UN system.
As the Resident Coordinator of the UN funds, agencies and programs that work in the Islamic Republic of Iran, I would like to welcome you to Tehran for this meeting and also join what has been expressed by national authorities and from the WHO in terms of that concern all United Nations agencies that the increasing burden of heart diseases, of stroke, of diabetes, of cancer [and] asthma on the poor and low and middle-income countries has to be seriously considered and that these [have already] derailed many international efforts in health and poverty reduction and they do affect the achievement of the millennium development goals by the global community.
We are witnessing how the epidemic of non-communicable diseases is growing faster in poor countries.
Premature death rates from non-communicable diseases are rising much faster in low-income countries than anywhere else in the world.
We are observing how the poor are disproportionately affected. For example, [the] World Bank estimates that the poor are twice more likely to die from non-communicable diseases than the higher income countries. While it is inevitable, it should be neither premature, nor proceeded by years of poor health, especially if these could be avoided.
We are learning how the costs of non-communicable diseases create a poverty trap. A pattern is emerging from studies in progress that poor people in developing countries burdened by non-communicable diseases lack access to public health care services which can be meet their needs. They are forced to turn to private sector for the delivery of health services to manage their diabetes; their cancers, their heart diseases and stroke, paying these expenses many times out-of-pocket until they are impoverished by the cost of care and can no longer pay for these services.
We’re also finding out how the epidemic of non-communicable disease is lowering economic growth as a result of people dying too young, often during their most productive years.
We can not afford to remain a bystander. It is time to give this issue its due attention in developing countries and to share the experience that countries like the Islamic Republic of Iran have to address these problems.
The time has come to consider non-communicable diseases firmly as part of the world’s development agenda, of the world’s development concerns.
As you all know, the General Assembly of the United Nations will hold a high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in September of the year 2011 in New York.
The meeting will be attended by heads of states. This is the opportunity to include the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in the global development initiatives and related investment decisions.
I would like to welcome you once again very warmly to Iran, wish you a very productive meeting today in your deliberations that will support the process of preparation of member states in the Eastern Mediterranean Region for this meeting of General Assembly.
Thank you very much.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/UserFiles/File/SD%20(non-picture)/Voice/October%202010/C.%20Vidal%20EMRO-TUMS-Oct%202010.mp3
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