Sana Ullah Guhman
Non-communicable diseases are diseases that are not spread through infection or through other people, but are typically caused by unhealthy behaviors. These include heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, kidney and many other diseases. NCDs are the leading causes of deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), NCDs kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 74% of all deaths globally. Each year, 17 million people die from NCDs before age of 70, of which 86% are from low- and middle-income countries. The situation in Pakistan is not different. 58% of total deaths in Pakistan are due to NCDs. According to the World Health Organization, 406,870 people die in Pakistan annually due to heart diseases, that means one person dies after every one and a half minutes. Similarly, according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF Atlas 2021, Pakistan has 3rd highest burden of diabetes worldwide with over 3.3 million people living with diabetes. The rate in which diabetes is increasing, Pakistan has become number one in the world with fastest growth of diabetes.
The annual cost to manage diabetes is over 2.6 billion US dollars which is double than the IMF installment we were requesting since long. These non-communicable diseases have become a serious threat to our health and economy. The same is the case with blood pressure, kidney diseases and other diseases. Leading causes of these diseases is our diet. We are not very careful about our food choices. Excessive consumption of fats, salt and sugar leads to heart, diabetes, kidney and many types of cancers. Sugary drinks are major source of free sugar. A small glass of sugary drinks contain 7 to 9 teaspoons of sugar. Fats, Salts nd sugar are major causes of obesity and obesity is called the mother of all diseases. Due to the negative health effects of fats, salt and sugary drinks worldwide, world has taken some very effective policy measures to reduce their consumption. These measures include increasing taxes on these foods, front of pack labeling and warning signs, school food policy and marketing restrictions. More than 106 countries or states in the world have increased taxes on sugary drinks to reduce their consumption. Similarly, various countries are placing warning signs on ultra-processed foods to help people make healthier food choices and reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods. In Pakistan, Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) has taken this responsibility. Since last 40 years, PANAH is advocating its countrymen to adopt a simple lifestyle, avoid excessive consumption of fats, salts and sugar. Today people are more aware of these things than before, but experience proves that if one life can be saved through awareness, thousands of lives can be saved through policy.
Keeping this in mind, PANAH is working with policy makers to develop policies that will reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods. PANAH did a lot of efforts to combat tobacco use and sugary drinks. In the recent budget, taxes on all sugary drinks and tobacco were increased, which reduced their consumption and is expected to reduce these diseases significantly, but more need to be done. For this, PANAH is launching a huge campaign against ultra-processed foods in the country, which will involve public awareness as well as working on all the policy options to reduce the consumption of these unhealthy foods. This will be a win-win situation that it will reduce the disease burden, reduce the people miseries and save the expenses incurred on these diseases. This will improve the health and economy of the country. We request the government and civil society to help us in this noble cause.