NONTHABURI, 10 August 2015 – The Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) is holding the “NCD Forum 2015” at IMPACT Forum, Muang Thong Thani, to underline the control of non-communicable diseases, with a new goal to decrease the number of patients by 25% within a decade.
MOPH minister Rachata Rachatanavin who presided over the event said that it is a forum to exchange ideas and experience on the development of non-communicable disease control, and also exhibits advanced medical technology in the field. The NCD Forum 2015 is taking place until tomorrow.
According to him, NCDs like Ischemic heart disease, Ischemic stroke disease, cancers, diabetes and Chronic respiratory diseases have sharply increased worldwide. NCDs make the largest contribution to mortality globally, with 36 million deaths each year.
The diseases also become the top cause of deaths among Thai population, killing an average of 300,000 people each year. The majority of the cases were related to heart and blood vessel diseases, followed by cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes respectively.
As NCDs are preventable, the MOPH has cooperated with its networks to reduce the mortality rate. They have set a goal to lower the number of patients by 25% within the next ten years. To achieve the goal, they will carry out a series of health campaigns discouraging people from salty food diet, smoking and binge drinking, and also against obesity and diabetes. The officials have set a target that 80% of those in risk of NCDs must have access to behavior modification consultancy by family care teams.
