ISPRM at the 66th Session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, in Tehran

  Date: 8 October 2019

Statement to the provisional agenda item 3(e) “Accelerating regional implementation of the Political Declaration of the Third United Nations High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases, 2018” in the context of REGIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN Sixty-sixth Session, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, 14-17 October 2019 The International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) celebrate the regional committee’s approach to accelerate regional implementation of the Political Declaration of the Third United Nations High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean countries. Especially emphasis on scaling up implementation of an updated regional framework for action on prevention, control and management of NCDs. Noncommunicable Diseases such as Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) were responsible for 2.6 million deaths in 2016 and supposed to be responsible for 3.8 million deaths in 2030. Disability-adjusted life years lost to NCDs are growing; violent conflicts, regional wars, natural disasters, and population migrations, are re-shaping the global health landscape in the EM region and people with disabilities have the greatest difficulty in accessing health services. Referring to Annex 1 agenda item 3 (e) addressing governance areas of commitments, it is expected that countries integrate the prevention and control of NCDs into national policies and developmental plans. Preparation and enrolling National Rehabilitation Plan for each country is a key strategy in this area. In the area of prevention and risk factor reduction, taking advantage of rehabilitation professionals’ capabilities including physicians specialized in physical and rehabilitation medicine and therapists in prevention of NCDs, would be a valuable strategy in the countries’ policies, through prescription and supervision of physical activity and rehabilitation measures. In the area of surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, setting up registry systems for NCDs and inclusion of rehabilitation sector for disease registry system would be very important. In the area of health care, preparing national guidelines for encouraging and implementation of rehabilitation medicine measures in prevention and management of NCDs is suggested. Since rehabilitation is considered a key strategy in achieving universal health coverage and the fact that rehabilitation professionals in PHC are scarce in most countries, we hope by implementation of the above mentioned suggestions in countries, national health policies, prevention, control, management and rehabilitation of NCDs according to WHO rehabilitation act 2030 would comprehensively be achieved. Listen to audio recording>> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————– 1- Rehabilitation 2030 a call for action. Rehabilitation: key for health in the 21st century. https://www.who.int/disabilities/care/KeyForHealth21stCentury.pdf Mansoor Rayegani, MD ISPRM Representative