The COVID-19 pandemic, now in its second consecutive year, has not only impacted the health of the world's population but has also highlighted the importance and fragility of the social, economic, and environmental contexts that determine it. Unfortunately, this pandemic aggravates the already alarming outcomes of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors in the world, as people suffering from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer are at higher risk for poor outcomes if they suffer from COVID-19.
The current situation in the Region of the Americas, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creates a challenge for the prevention and control of NCD risk factors associated with lifestyles in which tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyles prevail. Tobacco use, as such, is the main preventable risk factor for NCDs. In the Region of the Americas, tobacco use is responsible for 16% of deaths from cardiovascular disease, 25% from cancer, 52% from chronic respiratory diseases, and 11% from diabetes.
Measures that have been proven to be effective in reducing tobacco consumption are part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). However, their implementation is not uniform throughout the world and the Region of the Americas. In order to tackle this issue, WHO launched the MPOWER package in 2008, the FCTC States Parties adopted the Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control: promoting sustainable development through implementation of the WHO FCTC 2019-2025, and the Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) adopted the Strategy and Plan of Action to Strengthen Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas 2018-2022.
To contribute to global tobacco control efforts, WHO is working together with partners of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (Bloomberg Initiative) to strengthen the implementation of the measures of the MPOWER package. In addition, for the first time, the Bloomberg Initiative, through WHO, has earmarked specific funds to strengthen the tobacco control program in the Region of the Americas, through a project running from 2021 to 2022.
Within the framework of this project, the tobacco control team of PAHO's Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health (NMH), with technical and operational support from Mexico's National Institute of Public Health (INSP), has designed and will host a second block of their virtual training series on the MPOWER package implementation, consisting of five-sessions aimed at strengthening the technical capacity of Member States to accelerate the implementation of effective tobacco control measures.
The sessions of this virtual training will address the following topics:
Taking advantage of the virtual format, all PAHO Member States will be invited and will nominate their representatives, whose profiles are:
This online training consists of five webinars that are 120 minutes each, to be organized between August 26 and November 4, 2021. Each session will combine international experts presentations and country experiences.