Health experts strategise ways to reduce NCDs burden on country

ISLAMABAD: Top health experts of the country have recommended teaching prevention of communicable diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension at primary and secondary schools in the country and promoting healthy lifestyles at the community level to reduce early deaths due to heart attacks, and complications of diabetes and hypertension.

Chaired by the head of the NCDs sub-group of the National Health Taskforce Prof. Abdul Basit and the Chairman of the National Health and Population Subgroup for financing, governance, private sector and public-private partnerships Prof. Shahzad Ali Khan, the sub-group recommended preparing national guidelines for hypertension and diabetes to be endorsed by the government, WHO and all private sector societies.

The sub-group meeting which was attended by its members included renowned cardiologists including Prof. Muhammad Ishaq and Prof. Feroz Memon, endocrinologist Prof. Abbass Raza and public health expert from Getz Pharma Dr. Wajiha Javed, strongly recommended including cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the primary health care package along with fund allocation for inclusion of preventive services at primary level. 

They also agreed on developing standardized care for their treatment on a national level as well as establishing a single national disease registry for CVD (cardiovascular diseases) and diabetes, the inclusion of medicines for their treatment in the essential medicine list and recommending a ban on tobacco products, fizzy drinks and controlling substance abuse.

In this connection, a Letter of Understanding (LoU) was signed between Health Services Academy (HSA) and Getz Pharma on the sidelines of the 13th International Public Health Conference 2023 to focus on a shift from treatment to prevention, screenings, and early diagnosis of NCDs at all basic health units and rural health units across Pakistan. 

They would arrange training and workshops for capacity building of healthcare professionals on a standardized curriculum endorsed by the Ministry of National Health Services as well as provincial governments.

They will also devise standardized non-communicable disease care packages with the inclusion of essential medicines for service delivery to all the primary care physicians and funds would also arranged for primary healthcare initiatives with regular quality controls and monitoring. Advocacy for repositioning NCDs especially diabetes and hypertension would also be one of their future endeavours.