The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Lee Jong-wook, and the Federal Minister of Health for Canada, Ujjal Dosanjh, last week signed the Framework for Cooperation on Chronic Diseases Agreement at the annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland. "Canada is pleased to strengthen its work with the WHO on chronic disease prevention," said Minister Dosanjh. The Framework for Cooperation marks a new stage of collaboration between the WHO, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to jointly confront the epidemic of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases. The Framework will lead to improved approaches to preventing and controlling chronic diseases globally and in Canada, and the development of policies and strategies to address them. These will include, in particular, implementation of WHO's Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, as well as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Canada also pledges to strengthen its engagement in the international response to these diseases. "WHO is pleased and encouraged that Canada has identified chronic disease prevention and control as a global effort and is taking a leading role," said WHO Director-General, Dr. Lee. Chronic diseases currently represent 60 per cent of all deaths, mostly in developing countries, and 47 per cent of the global burden of disease. WHO predicts these figures will rise to 73 per cent and 60 per cent respectively by the year 2020.
