This is a press release issued in response to the WHO report Preventing Chronic Disease: A Vital Investment, published in October 2005.
The report Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment, prepared by the World Health Organisation, brings together the best global information available on the recent past and present in the field. It also looks to the future by showing clearly the deaths that could be averted by strong intervention, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The economic rationale highlights the macro and micro impacts of failure to address this problem as a priority, and the cost to an entire generation of foregoing this opportunity. In Mexico, chronic diseases (e.g. CVD, diabetes and cancer), as in other middle-income countries, lead the country’s mortality and burden of disease tables: the diseases – and the risk factors – remain on an upward trend.
CAPCoD is an international collaborative effort that can make a difference to this problem worldwide – and the WHO report proposals fit well with the project. The CAPCoD programme is comprehensive, targeting schools, workplaces, health-care institutions and community organisations, as well as the mass media, to reduce significantly each risk factor mentioned in the report. By using one common protocol, it will provide international comparisons and solid evidence about the cost effectiveness of these interventions in 12 countries in middle- as well as in low-income settings.
CAPCoD is a primary prevention model that could, using sound methodology, demonstrate the impact of bringing all relevant social partners together to reverse the flood of deaths from chronic diseases, before it occurs – many such deaths are preventable.
Dr Jorge A Ramírez
National Institute of Cardiology ‘Ignacio Chávez’
Mexico City
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Other press releases from CAPCoD projects issued in response to the WHO report can be found here.