The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Oman has launched the national policy for the prevention of chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which claim nearly 38 million lives lives each year, about half of them under the age of 70 as per the WHO estimates.
Dr Ali Al Hinai, Undersecretary, Planning Affairs, MOH, said that in Oman 72.9 per cent of deaths are attributed to NCDs, 24.3 due to cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure, seven per cent due to cancer, and 2.2 per cent due to diabetes as per the statistics for 2016. He added that of the 14 per cent of the 8,000 new births in Oman annually suffer from NCDs later in their life.
Lack of adequate physical inactivity, bad diet habits, tobacco and alcohol use are the main causes for death risks from NCDs and the national plan aims to reduce the number of premature deaths from NCDs by 25 per cent by 2025 with the focus on four major diseases - heart disease, arteries, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes.
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