Indonesia MoH and PFCD address challenges posed by chronic NCDs

The Indonesia Ministry of Health and the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD: a USA-based non-governmental organization) yesterday co-hosted a workshop, titled Meeting the Chronic Disease Challenge, which pulled together a number of international representatives including stakeholders from seven ASEAN countries.

This event follows the World Health Organization Regional Meeting on Health and Development Challenges of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) which was hosted by Indonesia in March of 2011. The March WHO regional meeting produced the “Jakarta call to action” which set forth a series of recommended approaches to prevent and manage chronic, non-communicable diseases. The research-based pharma industry, through its trade body the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), also recently launched its Framework for Action to tackle NCDs (The Pharma Letter June 16).

A number of the approaches put forward by the WHO were examined and explored during the June 21 workshop, as participants engaged in four roundtable discussions covering the critical role of prevention, intervention, integrated disease management, and innovative partnerships in addressing the growing threat of non-communicable disease across Southeast Asia.

The WHO Global Status Report on NCDs estimates that in 2008 nearly 2.7 million people from ASEAN countries died from four major non-communicable diseases: cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In Indonesia, it is estimated that nearly 1.1 million people died from these non-communicable diseases in 2008.