Romania at the UN High-Level meeting on non-communicable diseases

Mr. Raed Arafat, undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Health, delivered a speech, representing Romania, in the High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases.

The Romanian official expressed Romania’s support for the Political Declaration adopted in the context, considering it as being “an important step, at global level, aiming at reducing health inequity (…) on the background of the imperative of global cooperation regarding non-communicable diseases.”

He also highlighted a number of national initiatives, in the field of prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, such as:

- “A healthy lifestyle based on nutrition and physical activity”, launched in 1997, dedicated to children and adults;

- “Increasing access to primary health prevention services for children and adolescents in Romania”, aimed as stopping and reversing, by 2020, the trends of increasing overweight and obesity;

- The state-funded project, on “The early detection of acute myocardial infraction and early access to definitive care”, that lead to the significant reduction of related mortality, between August 2010 – August 2011.

In his closing remarks, he emphasized that the state-funded projects, developed upon evidence based medical practices, can lead to a reduction of morbidity and mortality, in a very short time-span, and combining these projects with those focused on prevention will have a further positive impact on medium and long term.