Blog # 4 UN Promises on Non-communicable Diseases

The United Nations general assembly met this week in New York to touch bases with global problems such as climate change & health that could have negative long-term effects later in life. During this meeting, they had a special meeting all for non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, & respiratory illness. The last “special meeting” they had about health issues was about 10 years ago to talk about HIV & AIDS. That meeting led to the creation of UNAIDS. Professor K. M. Venkat Narayan of Emory University says that there is not enough commitment to reduce these non-communicable diseases. Basically, trying to lower the statistics of these types of diseases is much harder then fighting the infectious diseases seeing as how some of those are completely gone, yet, the non-communicable diseases are increasing exponentially. They say the a major step in this process must take place in the policy & corporate arena, that is, discourage harmful things such as smoking & processed foods & getting people to change. However, Michael Bloomberg states that “there are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce, and results only governments can achieve.”

I definitely agree that more steps should be taken on the government level to prevent these type of diseases. My mother and grandmother both survived cancer while my grandfather passed away in March from lung cancer. So, things like going that extra mile to lower the rates of these diseases really mean a lot to me. However, I do think they should have held this meeting a lot sooner. After all, the last meeting of this sort was about 10 years ago. Very, very recently am I starting to see more promoting of healthier foods instead of the “food” they sell at fast food restaurants. On the contrary, it seems as if they have stopped showing the anti-smoking commercials. I wonder why…? These diseases can’t be stopped completely, however, as Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser states “NCDs are altering demographics, they are stunting development and they are impacting economic growth” & I completely agree.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/22/u-n-health-talks-promise-global-action-on-heart-disease-diabetes-cancer/