Impact of non-communicable diseases on human development is ‘large and rising’ – Dr Sylvia Anie

Dr Sylvia Anie, the Director of Social Transformation Programmes at the Commonwealth Secretariat, has warned that “the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on human development is large and rising”.

She was speaking at the Commonwealth Medical Association’s (CMA) 22nd Triennial Conference in Malta, on 11 November 2010.

Dr Anie said that the Commonwealth has been “at the forefront in expressing concern about and raising awareness” of NCDs.

This was seen last November, when Heads of Government issued a statement on Commonwealth action to combat NCDs. “We, the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth, representing one third of the world’s population, affirm our commitment to addressing the burgeoning incidence of NCDs, and to increasing the ability of our countries to respond to this emerging health crisis,” leaders stated.

In addition to this high level commitment, efforts to raise awareness of NCDs have continued from the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Secretariat, based in London, recently organised and hosted an NCD consultation, which was attended by government and civil society policy experts, including representatives from ministries of health from five Commonwealth countries, the International Diabetes Foundation, and the National Heart Forum.

At the CMA’s conference, Dr Anie - who is responsible for Gender, Education and Health projects at the Commonwealth Secretariat - praised the efforts by Commonwealth Caribbean countries which she said “played a leading role” in raising the profile of concern on NCDs at their Caribbean regional summit in 2007.

“These and other initiatives culminated in the welcomed decision by the United Nations General Assembly last year to hold a United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs in September 2011 in New York,” said Dr Anie.

As a consequence of these initiatives and the growing awareness of the implications of the rising incidences of NCDs, Dr Anie told the conference that non-communicable diseases are being increasingly recognised for priority attention at both regional and national levels.

At the conference, a roundtable on HIV-related stigma in health care settings was organised with technical assistance and funding from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

This roundtable addressed HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination in health care settings, and HIV/AIDS and its chronic complications.

Experts in HIV from the Maastricht University, Holland, and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana made presentations and led the discussion.

In all, 30 doctors from 12 countries participated in the roundtable. They include representatives from the National Medical Associations of Bangladesh, Barbados, Cameroon, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and the UK.

The participants shared information on the manifestation of HIV-related stigma and the challenges of providing chronic care to AIDS patients in their countries.

Having admitted that HIV-related stigma continues to be an obstacle for HIV prevention and care, the participants resolved to improve the situation by conducting surveys of their staff and developing appropriate policies to address the issues in their practice.

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