Harare , 8 October -- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has appealed to the 52nd Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa to step its fight against Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). 
Opening the session at the Harare International Conference Centre Tuesday, President Mugabe said unless they were prevented NCDs could take an increasingly heavy toll on the Region.

"Non Communicable diseases, long neglected as diseases of the affluent, have been making inroads into the top five priority diseases in this region," President Mugabe said. "Since the risk factors of today are the diseases of tomorrow, it is important that NCDs be given due priority as they threaten to continue causing considerable morbidity and mortality."

He said because NCDs were expensive to treat, it was important that the Region worked to ensure their prevention.

President Mugabe also noted that the resurgence of TB, exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, had overstretched many of the Region's health care systems. The situation, he said, had been worsened by the diminishing resources available to the Region's poorly performing economies.

He said an economic downturn had made it more difficult for Southern African states to check the health impact of the current drought in the sub-region, one of the severest droughts in recent memory

"Apart from causing severe shortages of food for our people, there are in addition serious health consequences of this drought," President Mugabe said. "Because of the economic downturn in many of our countries in the region, the already compromised health system is failing to respond adequately and effectively to these health challenges."

President Mugabe said the humanitarian crisis that had arisen out of the drought had been compounded by the HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis pandemics that had hit Southern Africa.

"It is my sincere hope that the Honourable Ministers of Health will spare no efforts in identifying critical strategies, which will help us address these serious health problems," he told the session.

President Mugabe, however, noted that some progress had been made in especially the battle against malaria.

He said Zimbabwe, which launched it's Roll Back Malaria (RBM) strategy in May 2001, had already received important support in its battle against malaria in the form of motor vehicles, computers, insecticide treated bednets and re-treatment kits and motor cycles.

Addressing the gathering, WHO Director-General, Dr. Gro Harlem Bruntland, noted important progress in making vital drugs available to the world's poor.

"The mould has been broken. Access to medicines is now at the centre of the global agenda, with the insistence that people's health be given highest emphasis in trade debates," she said. "I take the view that no clause in any trade agreement should work in a way that denies -- to those who need them - access to life-saving medicines for common diseases. This applies wherever they live and whatever their ability to pay."

She noted that after four years of intensive campaigning, differential pricing now ensured poor people's access to important medicines while prices of some anti-retrovirals had dropped by 80 to 90 per cent, and those for TB medicines had been reduced by a third. Neviraprine was also now available free of charge for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, as was multi-drug therapy for leprosy.

Dr Bruntland also urged an efficient use of resources made available by the new Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and TB.

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and TB is a bold response to the extraordinary impact of these illnesses. Everywhere I go there is great anticipation for its success in moving real action forward," she said.

"We want to see effective mechanisms for handling new resources made available through the Global Fund, and for monitoring results. We will encourage further contributions so that the Fund has enough resources to respond to country needs."

Dr Bruntland also called for better care of the environment to ensure the protection of especially children against disease.

She said the environment in which children lived, worked and played, was a major factor in the transmission of disease and that in 2000 alone, nearly five million child deaths had resulted from unhealthy environments.

"The time is ripe for governments and NGOs, scientists and politicians, private entities and campaigners to work together. To put children first. To tackle environmental health risks with cost effective interventions. To agree strategies and use precise indicators. WHO and alliance members are gearing to help. By working together we will make a difference to public health, and our children's future," Dr. Bruntland said.

Addressing the session on behalf of the African Union, Ambassador Mahamt H. Doutoum warned that the Region had to respond much faster to its health problems, if its disease burden was to be reduced.

"Unless we are fast, agile and result-oriented, the disease burden will continue to wipe out all the gains so far achieved since political independence in the early 1960s," he said.

"The African Union challenges us to abandon old ways of doing things," he added. "The AU calls upon us to be more pragmatic, action-oriented in designing viable policies that are implementable and appropriate." 

For further information, please contact

Dan Sibongo
 Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzaville, Congo. 
Tel: + 1 321 953 9378; Fax: 1 321 953 9513 
In Harare: Mobile 091 328 458