TEHRAN (Iran News) – A significant percentage of deaths, almost 83 percent, in the country are caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), according to an official with the Ministry of Health.

A large number of deaths in the country are caused by cardiovascular diseases. That’s why high blood pressure and diabetes, as risk factors, have been prioritized by the NCD Office and the Ministry of Health, IRNA quoted Farzaneh Farbakhsh as saying.

Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure can be easily controlled in the early stages even without taking medication, she added.

The national health campaign, which kicked off on November 11, seeks to improve the health of the population group aged over 18 by extensive screening.

It aims at detecting diseases and informing the target group about these illnesses and their risks.

“The main objective of this campaign is to detect diseases in the early stages to provide more effective care for our countrymen,” Farbakhsh said.

Universities of Medical Sciences will help in different ways to inform the target population, those over 18, and pregnant mothers in all age groups, about health risk factors i.e. diabetes and high blood pressure.

The Health Ministry is looking for better implementation of the national health campaign by actively using the media, billboards, placards, and posters to communicate information and raise people’s awareness, she noted.

The campaign tries to provide detailed information and educational content that will help the target groups learn about diseases they may not be aware of. Then, they will try to change their lifestyle to promote their health.

“By making coordination between governmental departments, private sector organizations, and health centers, our colleagues can undertake diabetes and high blood pressure screening as visiting workforces in labor departments, factories, and industrial estates,” Farbakhsh said.

The individuals identified in the screening won’t be abandoned after the end of the national health campaign; they will be subject to periodic control and receive the necessary care if needed, she added.

National health campaign

The first phase of the national health campaign started with the theme of “earlier awareness, better care” and will continue until January 5, 2024, ISNA reported.

Nowadays, health is one of the most essential human needs. Before the coronavirus pandemic, people may not have realized its importance, but this disease showed us how precious health is, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said at a ceremony to unveil the Campaign.

“Maybe everyone thinks that our job is treatment, but it is not true. Our main duty is to prevent diseases and promote health.” For this reason, we started a project called “national health campaign” on November 11, which will continue till January 5, 2024.

Emphasizing the importance of improving health literacy, Einollahi said, “The level of literacy in the society has increased, and we expect this level to improve in the field of health as well. Also, we hope to manage having an electronic health file for every Iranian with their national identification code to record the history of illnesses in their family, their lifestyle, etc. so that their diseases and their reasons can be traced easily.”

He emphasized the campaign should include over 70 percent of the country’s population; there is full preparation for its implementation in all universities of medical sciences, and everyone is mobilized to implement the plan.

Einollahi added: “Currently, with the decrease of communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases have increased, so that they are responsible for 83 percent of deaths.

Every year, some 300,000 people die in the country due to non-communicable diseases, and more than 150,000 deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, diabetes accounts for 30,000 deaths every year.”

Some 32 percent of people over 18 years of age in Iran have high blood pressure, he said, adding that many may not have even checked their blood pressure once.

The health minister emphasized, “We hope to be able to prevent half a million deaths due to cardiovascular disease and 30 thousand deaths due to diabetes till 2030 with timely awareness.”

Over the past 20 years, deaths caused by NCDs have risen by 14.5 percent. In 2016, 304,400 premature deaths were caused by NCDs in Iran, according to WHO.

Cardiovascular diseases have the highest share of 43 percent of the total deaths caused by NCDs.