WHO awards Turkey’s war on non-communicable diseases

NEW YORK - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s Health Ministry received an award Sept. 25 from the World Health Organization (WHO) for its efforts to fight non-communicable diseases.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom presented the achievement award in a ceremony in New York to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on behalf of the ministry.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca was also present at the ceremony.

“Today I met with President Erdoğan and presented him with an award from the U.N. Interagency Taskforce on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. Turkey has made an outstanding contribution towards the NCD-related GlobalGoals. It’s time to beat NCD,” Tedros Adhanom wrote on Twitter on Sept. 25

Premature death from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continues to be one of the major development challenges in the 21st century, WHO said in the Progress Monitor 2017 report.

According to the report, NCDs kill 15 million women and men between the ages of 30 and 70 each year, and leave no country untouched.

This burden is rising disproportionately among low-income and lower-middle-income countries, where almost half of premature NCD deaths occur, the reported added.