Articles

Non-communicable chronic diseases, pending task of World Public Health

0000-0002-2044-3154Jadier Wong Silva^{1  *} 

¹University of Medical Sciences of Pinar del Río. Provincial Teaching Pediatric Hospital "Pepe Portilla". Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

Dear readers:

Health systems face multiple challenges today, including the ongoing struggle to curb the negative balance reflected each year in world statistics as a result of the increase in morbidity and mortality associated with chronic non-communicable diseases.

This group of pathologies are the main cause of disability and death in the world, it is made up of those diseases whose origin does not have an acute infection as a starting point and leaves consequences for human health in the long term.

Cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, cancer and chronic lung diseases make up this fateful group of conditions that kills nearly 41 million people annually, a figure that constitutes around 71 % of the deaths that occur in the world. Although mental health disorders are included today, it is the former that cause the greatest damage.

In the Region of the Americas, 2,2 million people die from chronic non-communicable diseases before their 70th birthday. Every year 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 die; more than 85 % of these "premature" deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.¹

Cardiovascular diseases are the ones that today cause the greatest number of deaths, estimated at 17,9 million each year, cancer second the list with around 9 million, in third place are respiratory diseases that generate 3,9 million deaths and diabetes 1,6 million.

The current consensus revolves around disease prevention as the best tool to reduce or eliminate some risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases such as tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, and eating unhealthy foods.

Recent data shows that tobacco is responsible for the death of 7,2 million people a year (if the effects of exposure to second-hand smoke are included), and this figure is expected to increase considerably in the coming years. More than half of the 3,3 million deaths annually attributable to alcohol use are due to noncommunicable diseases, including cancer. Some 1,6 million deaths each year can be attributed to insufficient physical activity.

Despite these not very encouraging figures, medical sciences are working to control the overwhelming pace of these diseases from early diagnosis and timely treatment, developing new research projects in their eagerness to find more effective procedures or therapies that guarantee higher quality of care. life to patients or achieve the long-awaited cure.

The challenge is posed, it is up to the nations to guarantee greater investment in health programs, in research, in projects that permanently guarantee health promotion, support the prevention of these diseases and the control of modifiable risk factors. It is vital to generate public initiatives attached to the current needs of the population to guarantee a balanced diet, and an awareness of the need to avoid these diseases and their fatal consequences.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Página Oficial de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud. [Internet]; 2022 [citado: 03/07/2023]. Disponible en: Disponible en: https://www.paho.org/es/temas/enfermedades-no-transmisibles

Financing

No funding was received for the development of this

Received: July 03, 2023; Accepted: July 04, 2023

No conflict of interest declared