Sep 9 2011
U.N. member state representatives recently reached an agreement "on a political declaration document for the 19 September U.N. high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)," although the document is "somewhat watered down from an original version," ScienceInsider reports (Reardon, 9/7). "The process has hit delays and setbacks, including resistance from some member countries to setting hard targets for reducing disease," according to the PBS Newshour blog "The Rundown" (Miller, 9/7).
WHO Assistant-Director Ala Alwan "says that WHO is pleased overall with the outcome document, [but] the recommendation for the World Health Assembly to set targets such as salt reduction and tobacco taxation in 2012 isn't likely to please health advocacy groups such as NCDA," ScienceInsider writes. Ann Keeling, chair of the NCD Alliance, told ScienceInsider, "We want a commitment made on the 20th of September, not in 2012" (9/7). The PBS Newshour blog features an interview with Keeling (9/7).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|