By Henrylito D. Tacio
For the last two years, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was the most dreaded disease. It’s an infectious disease caused by another coronavirus that’s a distant cousin of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
COVID-19 is one of the top infectious diseases along with tuberculosis, influenza, malaria, dengue, measles, chickenpox, and pneumonia. In the past, these were in the list of the Grim Reaper.
But today, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) now outnumber infectious diseases as the “top killer globally,” according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).
NCDs take one person under 70 every two seconds, the United Nations health agency said in a new report. “NCDs constitute one of the greatest health and development challenges of this century,” it said.
Chief among them are cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and stroke; cancer; and diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – as well as mental health illness. Together, they account for nearly three-quarters of deaths in the world, taking 41 million lives annually.
“This major public health shift has gone largely unnoticed over the last decades,” the UN health agency deplored.
Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths, or 17.9 million people annually, according to the WHO. Cancers followed with 9.3 million deaths annually, then by chronic respiratory (4.1 million), and diabetes (2 million deaths including kidney disease deaths caused by diabetes).
“These four groups of diseases account for over 80% of all premature NCD deaths,” the WHO said.
Bente Mikkelsen, WHO’s Director of Noncommunicable Diseases, argued that NCDs are diseases of high-income countries.
“It is a misconception,” he pointed out. A full 85 percent of all premature deaths caused by NCDs happen in low- and middle-income countries, he said.
Among the risk factors of NCDs are tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and air pollution.
According to the WHO, metabolic risk factors contribute to four key metabolic changes that increase the risk of NCDs: raised blood pressure, overweight/obesity, hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels), and hyperlipidemia (high levels of fat in the blood).
NCDs are primarily linked with poverty.
“The rapid rise in NCDs is predicted to impede poverty reduction initiatives in low-income countries, particularly by increasing household costs associated with health care,” the WHO said in a statement.
“Vulnerable and socially disadvantaged people get sicker and die sooner than people of higher social positions, especially because they are at greater risk of being exposed to harmful products, such as tobacco, or unhealthy dietary practices, and have limited access to health services,” the WHO added.
“Detection, screening and treatment of NCDs, as well as palliative care, are key components of the response to NCDs,” the WHO said.
NCDs must be curtailed now. “NCDs take a heavy toll on economies, cutting down people in their most productive years,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
In the Philippines, diseases of the heart had been consistently the leading cause of death for several years now, according to The Medical City. In 2020, the top three killers were the same as in 2019: ischaemic heart diseases, neoplasms or cancer, and cerebrovascular diseases.
Mental illness is the third most common disability in the country as six million Filipinos live with depression and anxiety. “Because of this, the country has the third highest rate of mental disorders in the Western Pacific,” reported Frontiers Psychology. – ###
