Non-communicable disease on the rise in Oman

Oman aims at reducing premature deaths resulted from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 2025, Ali Al Hanai, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health (MoH) for Planning Affairs said on Tuesday.

Around 73 per cent of total deaths in Oman are attributed to NCDS, of which 24.3 per cent are due to cardiovascular diseases.

Internationally, of 56.4 million deaths in 2015, 39.5 million, or 70 per cent were due to NCDs

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of most deaths resulting from the NCDs, followed by cancers, then the respiratory diseases and diabetes.

“NCDs are in every house in Oman,” Dr. Ahmed Al Qasmi, Director General of Planning at MoH said, stressing that the increasing numbers of such diseases are alarming.

Oman spends 3.5% on healthcare

The Sultanate currently spends 3.5 per cent of its annual budget on health services, according to Al Hanai.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), NCDs kill 38 million people annually, half of them are under the age of seventy.

Therefore, the Political Declaration of the High-Level General Assembly Meeting on Prevention and Control of NCDs was issued in September 2011.

The Declaration called for strengthening and facilitating the multi-sectoral actions for the prevention and control of NCDs through the effective partnership between the Country’s institutions, the private sector and the civil community organizations.