‘NCD deaths threaten economic growth’

DEATHS from noncommunicable diseases ( NCDs) pose threats to economic growth, and only investments in healthcare systems would remove them, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

In a NCD forum at the regional lender’s headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Dr. Bambang Susantono, ADB Vice- President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said such deaths were putting strains, financial and otherwise, on the healthcare systems of the bank’s developing member- countries.

“The direct medical cost of one NCD alone— diabetes— was estimated in 2015 at…$ 716 million ( P38.2 billion) for the Philippines,” he added.

“They will… severely affect economic growth and drive people into poverty because of lost jobs and the cost of chronic treatment.”

According to him, 71 percent of global deaths in the last three years resulted from NCDs, but most governments are helpless to fight them.

Common NCDs include autoimmune diseases, heart ailments, strokes, cancers, chronic kidney diseases, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Investments in fighting such diseases will lead to significant returns and reduce productivity losses and health care costs, the ADB official said.

Uncoordinated and poorly implemented approaches to combat NCDs had cost lives, Susantono said, noting that the number of obesity and NCD cases increased more than 10 percent annually in many Asia- Pacific countries.

Studies estimate that 62 percent of all overweight people live in a developing country, and most of them— about 1 billion— are in the region.

“The rate is about two out of five adults in Asia,” Susantono said.