Noncommunicable diseases
Fact sheet
Updated March 2013
Updated March 2013
Key facts
- Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill more than 36 million people each year.
- Nearly 80% of NCD deaths - 29 million - occur in low- and middle-income countries.
- More than nine million of all deaths attributed to NCDs occur before the age of 60; 90% of these "premature" deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
- Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths, or 17.3 million people annually, followed by cancers (7.6 million), respiratory diseases (4.2 million), and diabetes (1.3 million1).
- These four groups of diseases account for around 80% of all NCD deaths.
- They share four risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets.
The alarm bells about NCDs have been sounded by the WHO for several years now. The message is something like "Let us reduce deaths from NCDs, pour more public money into the problem."
So the Department of Health (DOH), PhilHealth and local governments have been pouring more money on reducing or preventing diseases and death from NCDs. PhilHealth for instance reported of Rising Claims for NCD. If PhilHealth will raise further spending for NCDs, the reserve fund can evaporate soon, or PhilHealth will ask for higher monthly premium from members, especially those employed in the formal sector. Why?
People with NCDs are sort of "patients forever". Unlike treating infectious diseases like dengue or malaria, once the disease inside a patient's body is killed, the patient gets well and will not need medication or hospitalization for the next few years or ever decades. For patients with NCDs though, they have to visit a physician monthly or even more frequently. For instance, a hypertension patient, according to a physician or pharmacist who spoke during the MeTA forum at the AIM last April said will need a combination of 2-3 medicines per day.
The WHO I think is pulling health alarmism here, the
same way they alarmed the world with the dangers of HIV/AIDS in the 90s. It
turned out that the warning was exaggerated because if their
projections were true, the population of Africa by now should be less than its
population in the 90s, but this did not happen.
If an average Filipino dies of stroke or cancer or
hypertension or other NCDs at age 75 or 80 or older, is it a problem?
WHO and DOH say Yes, because about 2/3 of deaths in the
Philippines and worldwide now are due to NCDs.
For me it is not a problem. We will all die. If
not of NCDs, we can die of infectious diseases or accidents or some crime.
The average lifespan of Filipinos now is 70 years old; 67
for men, 73 for women, so average of 70. If a person dies at 75 or older due to
NCDs, there should be NO cause for alarm except alarmism itself. Ala
"man-made warming" alarmism.
Even if death from NCDs rise from 66 to 80 percent, or even 90 percent of all deaths, but life expectancy has increased from 70 to 80 or 90 years old, then it is not a problem.
Even if death from NCDs rise from 66 to 80 percent, or even 90 percent of all deaths, but life expectancy has increased from 70 to 80 or 90 years old, then it is not a problem.
Perhaps the WHO and various government health agencies want people to die at 100
or 200 years old on average, so they play God to keep prolonging average life span? Which means governments will tax-tax-tax the rest of us further so it will have more money to play and act like a God.
I think governments should focus more on reducing morbidity and mortality from infectious and communicable diseases. Give more vaccines to children for instance to limit deaths from preventable diseases.
For adult NCDs, governments should step back and allow people to buy private health insurance, to augment existing government health insurance programs. As the WHO pointed out above, NCDs are closely related with unhealthy lifestyle, like people who over-eat, over-sit, over-drink and over-smoke. I know of some people who are fat and irritable, they don't even want to admit that they are fat, and yet all they want to do is sit down and eat, rest and sleep or watch TV for hours.
It will be a criminal act of the government to over-tax people who take care of their body more responsibly, so that government will have more money to subsidize the deteriorating health of this type of people. NCDs are essentially lifestyle related, with a minor factor due to genetics.
Meanwhile, Reiner Gloor of PHAP made a good discussion about NCDs in his article last week, below.
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http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=70310
I think governments should focus more on reducing morbidity and mortality from infectious and communicable diseases. Give more vaccines to children for instance to limit deaths from preventable diseases.
For adult NCDs, governments should step back and allow people to buy private health insurance, to augment existing government health insurance programs. As the WHO pointed out above, NCDs are closely related with unhealthy lifestyle, like people who over-eat, over-sit, over-drink and over-smoke. I know of some people who are fat and irritable, they don't even want to admit that they are fat, and yet all they want to do is sit down and eat, rest and sleep or watch TV for hours.
It will be a criminal act of the government to over-tax people who take care of their body more responsibly, so that government will have more money to subsidize the deteriorating health of this type of people. NCDs are essentially lifestyle related, with a minor factor due to genetics.
Meanwhile, Reiner Gloor of PHAP made a good discussion about NCDs in his article last week, below.
------------
http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=70310
Posted on 05:16 PM, May 16, 2013
Medicine Cabinet -- Reiner W. Gloor
The global burden of NCDs
(First of a series)
EACH DAY, about 100,000 people around the world die from major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) namely cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic respiratory infections and cancers.
An estimated 36 million people succumb to these diseases
each year, or some two out of three deaths globally. About nine million of
these were people under the age of 60.
Many of the losses occur in low and middle-income nations to include the Philippines which had cardiovascular diseases as the number one cause of death among Filipinos, according to the Department of Health (DoH). With the sheer number of lives lost, major NCDs are no doubt the world’s biggest killer diseases.
NCDs place a heavy burden on individuals, families, and communities and public health systems that often rely on out-of-pocket payments.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that out-of-pocket payments could cause households to incur catastrophic expenditures, which in turn push them into poverty. A WHO technical report, "Designing Health Financing Systems to Reduce Catastrophic Diseases," said that when people have to pay fees or co-payments for health care, the amount can be so high in relation to income that it results in "financial catastrophe" for the individual or the household.
Many of the losses occur in low and middle-income nations to include the Philippines which had cardiovascular diseases as the number one cause of death among Filipinos, according to the Department of Health (DoH). With the sheer number of lives lost, major NCDs are no doubt the world’s biggest killer diseases.
NCDs place a heavy burden on individuals, families, and communities and public health systems that often rely on out-of-pocket payments.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that out-of-pocket payments could cause households to incur catastrophic expenditures, which in turn push them into poverty. A WHO technical report, "Designing Health Financing Systems to Reduce Catastrophic Diseases," said that when people have to pay fees or co-payments for health care, the amount can be so high in relation to income that it results in "financial catastrophe" for the individual or the household.
