Malaysia proposes global plan to tackle non-communicable diseases

Lee Chee Pheng

From V. Sankara Subramaniam

BUDAPEST, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia stated here Wednesday its plan to invite policymakers from 16 countries to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and contain the rising mortality rate due to these diseases over the past decades.            

The chief executive officer of the Second Meeting of the International Scientific Committee on Exercise Medicine, Prof Dr Lee Chee Pheng, who represented Malaysia, said this was necessary as NCDs were the cause of 71 per cent of the total deaths in many countries.           

"Malaysia is to initiate a global movement by involving policymakers from 16 countries to fight NCDs with the theme 'Aligning Policy and Exercise Medicine as an Investment towards Combating NCDs.'            

"We plan to invite all the policymakers concerned to Malaysia on Aug 15 to deliberate on the best policies and practices to fight NCDs," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the scientific committee meeting which was held at the Hungarian University of Physical Education here Wednesday.            

Lee said the call to ask Malaysia to initiate efforts to fight NCDs was unanimously agreed to by medical experts, exercise scientists, researchers, exercise experts and sociologists from various countries during the three-day scientific committee meeting which ended Tuesday.

On another note, Lee said Malaysia would host the third World Conference on Exercise Medicine (WCEM) at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 16 to 18.          

Lee, who is the WCEM vice-chairman, said the conference initiated by Monspace Multinational Corp founder and CEO Datuk Seri Jessy Lai, who is also the WCEM chairman, would gather exercise scientists, physicians, therapists and coaches to deliberate on exercise medicine, which is increasingly gaining acceptance among Malaysians.            

Meanwhile, a senior physiotherapist from Pusat Perubatan Menara Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur, Srikanth Babu Venga, said the concept of exercise medicine was becoming more popular in Asia where the right dosage of exercise to NCD patients was prescribed as a first course of treatment to prevent four main NCDs, namely hypertension, diabetes, obesity and dyslipidemia.            

He said the primary healthcare providers recognised exercise as a preventive and rehabilitative approach to many NCDs.          

"Prescription of exercise as medicine can be achieved if more primary healthcare providers and physicians are involved and take the initiative to refer their patients to qualified exercise specialists," he added.        

– BERNAMA