Yesterday in his address to the 71st United Nations General Assembly, Uruguay’s President Tabaré Vázquez’s called on the global community to unify to tackle the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
“NCDs may not be dealt with in isolation; from this seat we invite all countries, governments and peoples to form an alliance against non-communicable diseases. An alliance for a healthy life as wide, vigorous and dynamic as possible. And it is possible, not easy, but possible”, said President Vázquez.
“NCDs, to a great extent, result from four risk factors directly related to supposedly ‘typical
behaviours of modern lifestyle’: smoking, alcoholism, unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle. The main effects of the risk factors are increasingly being suffered by low- and middle-income countries and the poorest people in all countries, thus having a strong impact on the underlying socioeconomic determinants. Vicious circles are easily formed in these populations: poverty exposes people to behavioural risk factors of NCDs and in turn, these diseases tend to make poverty even worse.”
