Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne addressing the WHO special session on non-communicable diseases held in Berlin, Germany said that Sri Lanka has implemented a program to control 1/3 of non-communicable diseases by 2020.
Replying to questions posed at the session, the Minister said, Sri Lanka has already been able to control non-communicable diseases. “The WHO has confirmed Sri Lanka’s successful attempts at controlling such diseases as filariasis and Malaria,” the Minister said.
Around sixty percent of patients in our hospitals die of non-communicable diseases. In addition, with the advent of the incumbent government, measures such as increasing the pictorial warning in cigarette packets to 80 percent, increase of tobacco tax by 90 percent which has resulted in the drop of cigarette sales. Steps will be taken to introduce legislation to ban the sale of single cigarette packets and also the sale of cigarettes within a radius of 500 meters around schools, he said. The Minister further stated that the government’s measures to control sugar consumption has resulted in companies manufacturing fruit drinks reducing the sugar content of their products. In addition, prices of 48 essential drugs too have been brought down despite constraints from different quarters.
“In the teeth of opposition by drug manufacturing companies, I was emboldened to take decisions in the larger interests of the people.
I also pointed out that the facts adduced by some drug manufacturing companies were unethical. In consequence of the reduction of prices of 48 essential drugs, the prices of 300 drugs manufactured under various brands too have dropped,” he said.
The State Drug Manufacturing Corporation has entered into agreements with 38 foreign drug manufacturing companies to manufacture locally all drugs needed by Sri Lanka.
Free supply of stens for heart patients, eye lenses, relief for cancer patients, joint programs with Education Ministry to raise awareness among the schoolchildren on nutrition and non-communicable diseases, opening up non-communicable diseases centres in schools and commissioning ‘Suwa Divi and Suwa Naari’ centres are some of the significant achievements during the past two years, the minister said.
Princess Dina Mried of Jordan and Britain’s Financial Times editor Andrew Jack conducted the special session. Britain’s non-communicable diseases centre’s chief executive officer Katie Dais, WHO, European region Eaudes Eaica and Germany’s SANOFI drug cartel vice president Stefan Olrich were present at these sessions.