Small steps, big impact: WHO's 'Best Buys' to fight deadly NCDs worldwide

A new WHO report urges governments around the world to adopt low-cost, high-impact steps to curb heart disease, cancer, diabetes and more, warning that delay will cost lives and strain economies

The world is losing millions of lives every year to diseases that can often be prevented, treated or delayed. The World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm, urging governments to invest in a package of simple, proven interventions or ‘Best Buys’.

 

The new WHO report, Saving Lives, Spending Less: The Global Investment Case for Noncommunicable Diseases, highlights how affordable measures could transform the fight against noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung conditions, along with mental health disorders.

 

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the world’s leading causes of premature death, killing 18 million people every year before the age of 70. “In addition, more than one billion people face mental health conditions, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among young people,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO. “Apart from cutting lives short and robbing families of their loved ones, these deaths also incur huge costs for health systems and economies,” he said.

 

A trillion-dollar opportunity 

WHO estimates that scaling up the Best Buys package would cost countries just a few dollars per person each year – $3 on average. The returns, however, could be immense, with 12 million lives saved, 28 million heart attacks and strokes prevented, and more than 150 million healthy life-years gained by 2030. The global economy could also see more than $1 trillion in benefits from higher productivity and reduced healthcare costs.

 

“We call them the ‘Best Buys’. These include raising taxes on tobacco and alcohol, protecting children from the marketing of unhealthy food, promoting physical activity, improving diets, and screening for cancer. They are all proven, practical, and ready to use,” the WHO Director-General told journalists in Geneva. “We estimate that for every dollar countries invest in the ‘Best Buys’, they can expect up to a seven-dollar return in social and economic benefits,” he said.

 

WHO ‘Best Buys’ to tackle NCDs

 

Tobacco control

 

• Raise excise taxes and retail prices on tobacco products
• Enforce smoke-free indoor workplaces, public places, and public transport
• Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
• Introduce large graphic health warnings or plain packaging
• Mass media campaigns for awareness
• Provision of cessation services

 

Reducing harmful use of alcohol

 

• Increase excise taxes on alcoholic beverages
• Restrict or ban alcohol advertising across multiple media
• Limit availability of alcohol by reducing hours of sale and outlet density

 

Unhealthy diet

 

• Reformulation policies for food products
• Front-of-pack labelling and mass media campaigns to reduce salt, sugar and unhealthy fats in diets
• Public food procurement to promote food security, support local farmers and encourage healthy diets
• Protect children from harmful food marketing
• Optimal breastfeeding practices

 

Physical inactivity

 

• Promote public education campaigns and support programmes that encourage behaviour change to increase exercise

 

Cardiovascular disease

 

• Screening and treatment for high blood pressure, other cardiovascular risk factors
• Secondary prevention of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease

 

Chronic respiratory diseases

 

• Treatment of asthma exacerbations
• Treatment of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) exacerbations and long-term management of COPD

 

Cancer prevention

 

• Provide vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer
• Early screening, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer
• Early diagnosis and treatment of breast and colorectal cancer
• Prevention of liver cancer through hepatitis B immunisation
• Early diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancers
• Early detection and treatment of cancer in those living with HIV

 

Why the world cannot afford to delay 

With development assistance for health in decline and new global health and economic challenges piling up, the case for decisive action on noncommunicable diseases is stronger than ever, the WHO report warns.

 

“Demographic shifts, multi-morbidity, where people have more than one condition, is going to be an issue for health systems all around the world, including in the richest countries of the world,” said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Assistant Director-General, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control, WHO. “Investing in NCD prevention is not a cost – it is one of the smartest economic decisions any government can make,” said Dr Tedros.    For more health updates, follow #HealthwithBS