The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the effects of United States budget cuts and policy changes, a senior WHO executive has said.
Etienne Krug, WHO’s Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health, said such cuts would affect WHO programmes related to health care, nutrition and basic financial stability for millions of people who benefit from the WHO’s health programmes.
“Yes, we’re concerned,” Mr Krug told the Bangkok Post about the US moves. “We hope the US will rejoin or will stay with us in the future.”
Mr Krug said 194 WHO member states are working on implementing different health programmes. The WHO will continue working with all countries and its many partners to improve health and particularly tackle non-communicable diseases (NCD) and injuries, he said.
He said the WHO would closely monitor if US President Donald Trump continues pursuing his policies.
“Now that we’re in that reality, what will the organisation do in terms of cooperation? As I said, we have many member states, and our relationship with them hasn’t changed at all,” he said.
“What’s important for us is to tackle NCDs and to prevent injuries,” Mr Krug said. “We will continue doing that with civil society as well. We have very important public health objectives, which haven’t changed. Our approach is not going to change in terms of tackling NCDs.”
Mr Krug was speaking on the sidelines of the Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit lastweek in Paris. The summit gathered about 240 participants, including mayors, along with technical and communication leads from 61 cities around the world to address NCDs and injuries, which are responsible for eight out of 10 deaths globally.
He said NCDs and injuries are a priority for the WHO, which has been seeing a rise in many NCDs in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America due to increases in tobacco use, unhealthy diets, alcohol and lack of physical activity.
“And so we’re working hard with many countries, but also with many cities in Asia and around the world to strengthen legislation,” he said. “We improve information and also work with the private sector to try to steer towards healthier behaviour on their part.”
SDG goals
When asked whether the WHO has a target of reducing NCDs and injuries, he said that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets for different NCDs.
For example, a 50% reduction in NCDs by 2030 is an SDG.
“And we work with the rest of the UN system to achieve those goals, and with our member states and the cities to achieve those things,” he said.
He said the WHO collaborates closely with Bangkok and Manila on these NCDs and injury prevention issues.
Mr Krug said that based on data, those involved need to look at where the big problems are and try to change things gradually. It is not easy, he said, because these cities are rapidly developing, but there are opportunities as things evolve, which is easier than retrofitting health into existing infrastructure.
According to a recent WHO report, NCDs such as heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases are the predominant killers in Thailand, causing an estimated 400,000 deaths each year (or 74% of all deaths).
Behavioural risk factors for NCDs (tobacco use, insufficient physical activity, harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets) and metabolic risk factors (raised blood pressure, overweight/obesity, raised cholesterol and raised blood sugar) are highly prevalent among the Thai population.
Mr Krug spoke of African cities that have partnered with WHO where a city selects NCD programmes, such as those focused on tobacco, food, pollution and road safety.
“And then we work through exchange of best practices through technical support and finance to implement that intervention with the city leaders, so I think there is already great work happening in many of those African cities,” he said.