The Caribbean Region has been recorded as having the worst prevalence of deaths resulting from non- communicable diseases (NCD) in the Americas, prompting Heads of State to move to take urgent decisive action to stem the increase.

Against a background of 35 million deaths from NCDs globally in 2005, (WHO figures), in the Caribbean, two out of every three deaths recorded are attributable to these diseases. Moreover, they account for nearly half the deaths of persons below 70 years in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Globally, the chronic diseases of concern are heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases. These are caused by biological factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, high blood sugar, and high blood cholesterol. But heart diseases, in the Caribbean, stroke, cancer and diabetes are the main causes of death, and therefore, are of particular concern to the Caribbean people.

To this end, Caribbean leaders will meet in Trinidad tomorrow, for a Summit on chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) which is being held under the theme, “Stemming the Tide of Non-Communicable Diseases in the Caribbean.”

Members of the Caribbean media were yesterday briefed on the on the upcoming Summit, via a Media Clinic Video Conference hosted by the CARICOM Secretariat.

Addressing the media conference were: Sir George Alleyne, Health Promotion in Trinidad and Tobago; Mr. Patrick Manning - Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago; and Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary General of CARICOM. Moderator was Mr. Carlton James of the CARICOM Secretariat.

Prime Minister Manning said that the Summit, will examine the prospects for achieving positive outcomes through shared services, human resources, technical and technological capability among other things, to stem the rising tide of Non-communicable diseases in the Region.

Sir George Alleyne, recalled that the Summit had its genesis in the creation of the Commission on Health and Development, following the presentation of health related data, by the heads of State at a meeting in St. Lucia in 2005. The report noted that while the Caribbean had done very well in certain aspects of its health, they were less proud of the three major areas that presented themselves as threats.

Referring to them as the “three biggies”, Sir George Alleyne named the three threats as: non- communicable diseases; the problem of HIV-AIDS and that of injuries and violence.

The Heads were shocked at the magnitude of the problem, and agreed that if these were going to be addressed, attention also needed to be paid to the Region’s health services, with a view to correcting the inherent deficiencies. The report was presented to all the Heads for perusal and immediate action.

Subsequently, Sir Alleyne said, at a meeting held in St. Kitts Nevis last year, many of the Prime Ministers were ‘seized’ of the importance of the problem, and immediately sought to discuss strategies for grappling with this situation.

The “major risk factors” identified by the Heads as influencing the prevalence of these diseases in the Region, and which needed to be addressed in order to reduce the impact were: high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, inappropriate diet, lack of physical activity, as being issues on which they could take action.

In a rather passionate response to the dilemma, Prime Minister Patrick Manning immediately extended an by invitation to his colleague heads to join him in port of Spain to brainstorm and identify collective actions that could be taken for stemming the problem.

Albeit, commented that it was not enough to identify problems without solutions, hence, solutions were proposed along the lines of the major risk factors.

With respect to solutions, Sir George stressed: “There is no quick fix to reducing the burden of these diseases.”

He said that the people of the Region had reached this stage, as a result of decades of exposure to those risk factors, hence, their correction will take some time.

He said he selectively made this point, because, on occasions there is a tendency for impatience with results with diseases. He made it clear that the Summit was to prepare and encourage for the medium and long haul. “It is not a sprint…it is for a long distance approach to the problem,” he affirmed.

He added that the Summit will look at what actions can be taken collectively in terms of the goal, what can be done universally, in terms of basic activity among school children. “If we are going to address the problem of obesity, we have to start very young,” he opined. While not ignoring the problem in adults, he nonetheless observed that, as it is necessary to ensure Caribbean children “eat right, exercise right and play right.”