Bente Mikkelsen, Director Global Engagement Strategies at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Thank you James R. Downing, M.D. , Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. M.D. Ussene Isse Dr. Iziaq Kunle Salako, Asilbek Khudayarov for pushing the very important and over-due agenda on Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that affect more than 2 billion children and adolescents each year.
Progress under the UN Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals on maternal and child health has substantially reduced mortality in children younger than 5 years worldwide. With advances in preventing and treating communicable diseases, the burden has shifted towards NCDs and the urgent need for comprehensive approaches to addressing catastrophic blood diseases, including cancer and haemoglobinopathies, such as sickle cell disease.
Unfortunately, as they state in the Lancet commentary, global commitment to child health through the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals has been truncated, leading to crucial neglect of NCDs, such as childhood cancers and sickle cell disease.
On Sept 25, 2025, Heads of State and Government met for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing in order to adopt a new Political Declaration. This meeting was an important opportunity to galvanise a global movement for children with chronic and catastrophic diseases, especially cancers and sickle cell disease, and ensure they are no longer left behind.
We should celebrate that in the final Political Declaration huge progress is made with a language that is reflecting Sickle Cell Disease and a separate paragraph on childhood cancer:
Improve childhood cancer survival through scaling up interventions in order to achieve a survival rate of at least 60% globally by 2030, as proposed by the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC).”
Title: Improving survival and reducing suffering for children with NCDs
Authors: James R Downing, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Asilbek Khudayarov, Ussene Isse, Iziaq Adekunle Salako
More posts featuring Bente Mikkelsen on OncoDaily.