Regional High-level Meeting on Scaling up Multisectoral Action for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control

I would like to thank the many senior officials, including ministers and vice-ministers of health, finance and planning, who traveled here to help us consider what perhaps is the most stubborn public health challenge facing Western Pacific Region and that's the rising tide of noncommunicable diseases.

I also would like to thank the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their support in co-hosting this important meeting and for providing this wonderful venue for our discussions.

Throughout history, changes in the ways we live, the foods we eat and the work we do have evolved slowly, allowing our bodies to adapt. But changes over the past few decades—particularly rising urbanization, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and the aggressive marketing of foods unnaturally high in fat, salt and sugar—have occurred so rapidly that the human organism has not had time to adapt.

As a result, noncommunicable diseases—cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory aliments and diabetes—are rising rapidly and now affect every country in our Region.

Today, in the Western Pacific Region—home to nearly 1.8 billion people—noncommunicable diseases are responsible for four out of every five deaths. Nearly 30 000 people in our Region die every day due to diseases that can and should be prevented.

Tobacco alone claims 3000 lives in the Western Pacific Region every single day, according to WHO estimates. And those estimates indicate that 15% of all deaths among males 15 to 44 in our Region can be attributed to alcohol.

WHO's global data show that overweight and obesity are responsible for 44% of all diabetes cases. And physical inactivity is estimated to cause between 15% and 25% of breast and colon cancers, and is responsible for 30% of the heart disease burden worldwide.

The rising tide of noncommunicable diseases is already straining our health systems. Unlike communicable diseases that tend to affect people quickly, noncommunicable diseases generally progress much more slowly, creating complex health needs that are expensive to treat and can overwhelm already stressed health systems. Developing nations do not always have the resources to facilitate extended care in communities for chronic noncommunicable diseases, leaving the afflicted in the care of their families.

And we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Globally, deaths due to cancer are projected to rise by more than 60% in the first 30 years of this century, according to the latest WHO projections of mortality and disease burden. And deaths due to cardiovascular disease are expected to rise more than 70% over the same period. By the year 2030, noncommunicable diseases will account for 80% of all deaths.

It's usually the poorest people in our Region who have the highest burden of noncommunicable disease, as they often have greater exposure to risk factors and less access to preventive and therapeutic services.

Noncommunicable diseases are claiming victims at increasingly younger ages, even during childhood, depriving many of our citizens of their most productive years. These premature deaths not only devastate families by claiming the lives of primary wage-earners, but they weaken communities and national economies, making it more difficult to achieve equitable and sustainable development.

To the uninitiated, noncommunicable disease sounds like a "health issue" that can only be solved by the health sector. But as doctors, public health specialists, and government and community leaders, we know that by the time people enter the health system with cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory aliments and diabetes, it's often too late to offer much help. The battle really needs to begin at a much earlier stage.

If we want to win the battle against noncommunicable diseases, the health sector must join hands with other sectors—agriculture, education, the environment, the food industry, trade, transportation and others. And that's why we were very careful in choosing the title for this meeting, making sure the words "Multisectoral Action" were included.

We need a "whole-of-government" approach that engages all sectors. The private sector—those involved in producing, marketing and trading food—can take important steps to make our food healthier, while still enjoying healthy profits. Actions can be taken by city planners and transportation officials to create urban environments that promote healthier and more active lifestyles.

Our goal is to make it easier for all of our people to make healthier choices.

We are gathered here today so that our collective voice can be heard when world leaders gather in New York in September for a High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases.

Working together over these next two days, we hope to agree on a Seoul Declaration on Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control in the Western Pacific. This document, which many of us have worked on in draft form, lays out a road map for prevention and control in the Western Pacific and will allow us to raise our voices as one on the global stage at the NCD Summit at the United Nations in September.

We should not let ourselves think the problem is too big or too complicated.

In the Western Pacific Region, we've seen real progress in controlling tobacco, one of the major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. All the countries in our Region have ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and now have laws designed to reduce tobacco consumption. As a result, many countries in the Western Pacific are reporting declines in smoking prevalence.

We must mount similar efforts against unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and other NCD risk factors. There is an urgent need to push these issues higher on the public health agenda of countries in the Region, where public awareness of these problems is low.

The Seoul Declaration and the United Nations high-level meeting in September are significant steps in mounting an effective, comprehensive and sustained response to noncommunicable diseases.

We know what needs to done. Now we have to do it.

Thank you.