Treatment access is essential component of fight against NCDs

"The non-communicable disease [NCD] community always talks about the importance of prevention; many consider it the Holy Grail in the fight against NCDs. Why was it so hard to also accept treatment as part of the solution?" Princess Dina Mired, director general of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation in Amman, Jordan, asks in the Huffington Post "Impact" blog, noting only one target of the 2011 U.N. High-Level Meeting on NCDs "deals with treatment, the target on 'essential medicines and basic technologies for treatment.'" She continues, "Treatment and prevention are heavily interrelated. The success of one is directly related to the other." She adds, "A person in the developing world will not buy in to the importance of prevention if there is no treatment option available should that person get the disease."

Mired discusses the experiences of the foundation treating people in Jordan, and says, "[W]hile I understand that there is a process to be followed and a political fight to be waged, we cannot ignore treatment if we are serious about fixing the NCD problem." She continues, "We know that we need essential medicines and basic technologies at affordable prices. So why have we been so meek in asking for resources for treatment? Why are we hesitant to ask for the global war chest we need to support this battle? There are millions of people relying on us for their deliverance" (9/13).