MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - DR CASSANDRA KELLY-CIRINO
The commitment made by member states during last year’s World Health Assembly was a source of great hope for the global health community. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and lung diseases, and most importantly, the millions who suffer from them, were finally getting the attention they desperately needed.
But such commitment is meaningless without real world action that relieves the unnecessary burden placed on people and their families, too often within our most vulnerable communities.
For people with asthma and COPD, such burden spans the life course. COPD disproportionately affects adults and the older generation, while over 100 million children under 15 live with asthma every day.
This human toll is something we cannot ignore, and the economic costs are staggering. The exhaustion, the financial burden, the uncertainty about access to care, treatment and diagnosis puts repetitive stress and strain on individuals, families, communities and health systems (already under pressure) that doesn’t ease up.
Yet effective solutions exist, in the form of equitable access to inhaled medicines, integration of health services and sustainable financing mechanisms. These are proven interventions that are being implemented in countries that are leading the way. It is now time for others to follow suit and do what is right for those they have promised to protect from needless and preventable suffering.
This week, Global Week for Action on NCDs, we stand with the global NCD community around the world to call on governments to turn political commitments into sustainable financing, equitable access to care and measurable improvements in people's lives.