As part of activities to mark World No Tobacco Day 2013, the World
Health Organisation (WHO) has called on member states including Nigeria
to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, even as the
Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF) has alerted on the rise in damaged
hearts and valves caused by Rheumatic Fever (RF) and Rheumatic Heart
Disease (RHD).
Also, stakeholders including the NHF and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) have developed the first Nigerian document on Non-Communicable Diseases tagged National NCDs Plan with emphasis on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, sickle cell anaemia, albinism, road traffic accidents.
The WHO in a statement released recently said that the global tobacco epidemic killed nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.
According to the WHO, unless member states acted, the epidemic would kill more than eight million people every year by 2030 and more than 80 per cent of these preventable deaths would be among people living in low- and middle-income countries and that RF and RHD remained significant causes of cardiovascular diseases in the world.
A comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Executive Director of the NHF and President elect of the World Heart Federation (WHF), Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian alerted on the rise in rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease leading to damaged valves and hearts especially in pregnant women. Akinroye also said that the country had developed a National NCDs Plan which would be launched soon by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, before being taken to the Federal Executive Council and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Every year, on May 31, WHO and partners everywhere marked World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death globally and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.
The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2013 is: Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Akinroye said: “One of the NCDs and also chronic is rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. We assume we have really conquered it, certainly we have not at all and the burden of rheumatic heart disease is still there.
Those who were able to escape from rheumatic fever, their hearts are damaged, their valves are damaged and they are there. So we now get them when they are usually in their middle twenties and especially pregnant women, quite a lot of them with valvular damage who are not opportune to have a valvular correction.
Of course, you know in Nigeria our care for surgery is very bad. So we still have a lot of heavy burden about this and now this is our opportunity to go back again.
“We are also very lucky that when we are doing our national NCD plan which we just completed two weeks ago and we are going to launch that. I spoke with the minister this morning and we are going to launch that very soon.
We thought that rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease were gone but they are still here with us and we do not need any more than penicillin to be able give them at the primary health centre (PHC), identification of those people with rheumatic disease the centre at the PHC when we work with them at the secondary and tertiary centre to be able to see the real burden of disease.”
Akinroye who was the former vice president of African Heart Network (AHN) said that the National NCDs strategic Plan was a working document from the FMoH working with NHF and the academia. “So we have been working on it for the past two years, it has now been developed and we have the final document and the Minister of Health will soon launch it before we take it to the executive council and also to the president.
In the region of Africa, Nigeria unfortunately is the only country with no policy plan on NCD and you cannot be talking to anybody if you do not have a plan. Nobody wants to talk to you if you cannot estimate the burden of the disease,” he said.
Akinroye added: “First of all, we are going to focus on cardiovascular disease. We are focusing on cancer, we are also focusing on diabetes and we are focusing on chronic respiratory disease, which are the four main disease, which came on at the UN. But in addition to Nigeria’s peculiar situation, we have added haemoglobinopathy that is sickle cell disease, albinism, road traffic injuries. So globally at the regional level, the four main ones have been agreed on that cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease.”
A comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is required under the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) for all parties to this treaty within five years of the entry into force of the convention for that party.
Evidence shows that comprehensive advertising bans lead to reductions in the numbers of people starting and continuing smoking. Statistics show that banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce tobacco demand and thus a tobacco control “best buy”.
The ultimate goal of World No Tobacco Day is to contribute to protect present and future generations not only from these devastating health consequences, but also against the social, environmental and economic scourges of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.
The tobacco epidemic is man-made and entirely preventable. Yet, only half of the world’s population lives in a country that fully protects its people with at least one of the key policy interventions that significantly reduce tobacco use.
The six most effective policies that can curb the tobacco epidemic are outlined in WHO’s MPOWER strategy: monitoring tobacco use and prevention, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning people about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco.
Also, stakeholders including the NHF and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) have developed the first Nigerian document on Non-Communicable Diseases tagged National NCDs Plan with emphasis on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, sickle cell anaemia, albinism, road traffic accidents.
The WHO in a statement released recently said that the global tobacco epidemic killed nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.
According to the WHO, unless member states acted, the epidemic would kill more than eight million people every year by 2030 and more than 80 per cent of these preventable deaths would be among people living in low- and middle-income countries and that RF and RHD remained significant causes of cardiovascular diseases in the world.
A comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Executive Director of the NHF and President elect of the World Heart Federation (WHF), Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian alerted on the rise in rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease leading to damaged valves and hearts especially in pregnant women. Akinroye also said that the country had developed a National NCDs Plan which would be launched soon by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, before being taken to the Federal Executive Council and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Every year, on May 31, WHO and partners everywhere marked World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death globally and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.
The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2013 is: Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Akinroye said: “One of the NCDs and also chronic is rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. We assume we have really conquered it, certainly we have not at all and the burden of rheumatic heart disease is still there.
Those who were able to escape from rheumatic fever, their hearts are damaged, their valves are damaged and they are there. So we now get them when they are usually in their middle twenties and especially pregnant women, quite a lot of them with valvular damage who are not opportune to have a valvular correction.
Of course, you know in Nigeria our care for surgery is very bad. So we still have a lot of heavy burden about this and now this is our opportunity to go back again.
“We are also very lucky that when we are doing our national NCD plan which we just completed two weeks ago and we are going to launch that. I spoke with the minister this morning and we are going to launch that very soon.
We thought that rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease were gone but they are still here with us and we do not need any more than penicillin to be able give them at the primary health centre (PHC), identification of those people with rheumatic disease the centre at the PHC when we work with them at the secondary and tertiary centre to be able to see the real burden of disease.”
Akinroye who was the former vice president of African Heart Network (AHN) said that the National NCDs strategic Plan was a working document from the FMoH working with NHF and the academia. “So we have been working on it for the past two years, it has now been developed and we have the final document and the Minister of Health will soon launch it before we take it to the executive council and also to the president.
In the region of Africa, Nigeria unfortunately is the only country with no policy plan on NCD and you cannot be talking to anybody if you do not have a plan. Nobody wants to talk to you if you cannot estimate the burden of the disease,” he said.
Akinroye added: “First of all, we are going to focus on cardiovascular disease. We are focusing on cancer, we are also focusing on diabetes and we are focusing on chronic respiratory disease, which are the four main disease, which came on at the UN. But in addition to Nigeria’s peculiar situation, we have added haemoglobinopathy that is sickle cell disease, albinism, road traffic injuries. So globally at the regional level, the four main ones have been agreed on that cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease.”
A comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is required under the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) for all parties to this treaty within five years of the entry into force of the convention for that party.
Evidence shows that comprehensive advertising bans lead to reductions in the numbers of people starting and continuing smoking. Statistics show that banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce tobacco demand and thus a tobacco control “best buy”.
The ultimate goal of World No Tobacco Day is to contribute to protect present and future generations not only from these devastating health consequences, but also against the social, environmental and economic scourges of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.
The tobacco epidemic is man-made and entirely preventable. Yet, only half of the world’s population lives in a country that fully protects its people with at least one of the key policy interventions that significantly reduce tobacco use.
The six most effective policies that can curb the tobacco epidemic are outlined in WHO’s MPOWER strategy: monitoring tobacco use and prevention, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco use, warning people about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco.
0 comments:
Post a Comment