WDF welcomes the Political Declaration on NCDs

The World Diabetes Foundation welcomes the Political Declaration on prevention and care for NCDs recognizing the scale of the global NCD crisis and the urgent need for action. The draft was discussed at the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on 19-20 September by leaders of the 193 UN Member States.

Correcting the balance

From a funding perspective the Declaration calls for increased resources for NCDs through domestic, bilateral and multilateral channels and it recognizes that resources devoted to dealing with NCDs are not commensurate with the magnitude of the problem. To some extent this corrects the imbalance that has been created over the past decade with the one-sided attention to only certain communicable diseases.

We also note with satisfaction that many issues that the WDF has been advocating for including the need for an increased focus on the link between maternal and child health and NCDs risks, strengthening prevention and care for NCDs at the primary care level, and the need to recognize and address the links between communicable and non-communicable diseases have been addressed in the draft political declaration. However, it falls short of specifically mentioning any concrete commitments on the link between diabetes and tuberculosis and the dual burden that this poses in many middle and low income countries.

The link between TB-diabetes

For the purpose of achieving the MDGs related to tuberculosis control, it is important in low-resource countries to focus not only on improved access to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis and on HIV/AIDS, but also on the burgeoning epidemic of diabetes as a significant risk factor. The Foundation believes that not recognising and addressing the link between TB and diabetes has the potential to undo the previous gains in tuberculosis prevention and control efforts.

The recently launched Collaborative Framework for Care and Control of TB and Diabetes developed by the WHO and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (IUALTD) directs attention and suggests actions to tackle this issue. WDF played an enabling role in catalysing and supporting a multi stakeholder dialogue and review of the current evidence as a prelude to this development.

Pilot projects build evidence

Apart from funding grass root initiatives to address the prevention and care of diabetes and related NCDs in the developing countries, the WDF has tried to highlight this link between TB and diabetes and supported pilot projects to understand and build evidence to support action on the dual burden, through several programmes in Malawi, India, China, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico and Cameroon.

"Well functioning health systems are a precondition for prevention and treatment of diseases - both infectious and non-communicable. We must keep in mind that risk factors and socio-economic determinants of diseases are often inter-linked and while different organisations may have the ability, knowledge or mandate to address one particular issue we must work together and coordinate our efforts where possible in true partnership avoiding the silo mentality, if we want to improve the health of poor people in developing countries. It is neither efficient nor do we have the luxury of abundant resources to build vertical systems with no inter-connectedness," states Dr. Anil Kapur.

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