According to the World Health Organization (WHO), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of deaths worldwide. In 2008, of the 57 million deaths, 36 million people died due to NCDs. Deaths were attributed to cardiovascular diseases (48%), cancers (21%), chronic respiratory diseases (12%), and diabetes (3%).

The WHO global status report (GSR) on NCDs for 2011 revealed that poorer countries are more susceptible to NCDs. High-income countries have 13% prevalence, upper-middle-income countries have 25% prevalence, while lower-middle-income countries like the Philippines have 28% prevalence. Low-income countries have 41% prevalence of premature deaths among citizens below 60 years of age. This is three times higher than the proportion of the high-income countries.

Dr. Antonio Dans, professor at the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) stressed that NCDs are not diseases of affluence but diseases of poverty.

Dr. Dans presented the report on non-communicable diseases of the Lancet Southeast Asia series during the 12^th National Health Research Forum for Action held at the Pan Pacific Hotel Manila last 14-15 November 2011. He said that Southeast Asia is facing the epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases. Based on 2008 figures, 60% of all deaths in Southeast Asia are attributed to NCDs.

In the Philippines, about 200,000 Filipinos die annually because of NCDs. "This is larger than any epidemic we have ever seen in the country," said Dr. Dans.

Traditionally, NCDs are viewed as the diseases of the elderly, "therefore unavoidable." However, based on studies, NCDs are now affecting even the productive age group from 15 to 59 years old. "Sixty percent of the disability causes in this age group are NCDs. This situation is greatly affecting the productivity and economy of countries," said Dr. Dans.

"While death or disability results to productivity and income losses, it also brings expenditures for medical care on families affected, leading to serious consequences, not only at the household level, but at the national level as well," added Dr. Dans.

Risk factors of NCDs

The leading risk factors globally for non-communicable diseases are raised blood pressure, tobacco use, raised blood sugar, physical inactivity as well as overweight and obesity.

"The prevailing risk factors varied among a country's income groups," said Dr. Dans. Physical inactivity among women is the prevailing risk factor in high-income countries, while smoking or tobacco use is the prevailing NCD risk factor among middle-income group countries like the Philippines.

Dr. Dans also challenged the paradigm that lifestyle is a choice. "It is not, because we live according to what the environment provides us." He cited the strong connection between poverty and NCDs as an example. "People in the lower socio-economic class have less access to disease prevention. Therefore, they have unhealthy lifestyles and have higher risk factors. They have no access to treatment when they have heart diseases, lung cancer and other NCDs." Likewise, poor families do not have the money to finance treatments which leads to higher mortality rates.

Dr. Dans proposed several measures to promote healthy lifestyle: 1) legislative advocacy on proper food labeling (emphasizing food health risks and benefits), 2) implementation of sin taxes, and 3) legislation on healthy urbanization or creating infrastructure for healthy lifestyle in school, in workplace and the community.

"No matter how much we shout at patient's ears about exercise and healthy lifestyle, they will not listen because we live according to what the environment provides us. Even the doctors who have mountains of information necessary to live healthy, they still smoke, they don't eat healthy, and they don't exercise. Rather than begging individuals to live healthy, we should level-up our agenda towards a healthy environment and help promote healthy lifestyle in our society," concluded Dr. Dans.

After thorough evaluation and review, the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) announced that Acta Medica Philippina is accepted for inclusion in Scopus, the world's largest online abstract and citation database designed to increase researchers, librarians, productivity through its built-in functionalities that can be used to tract, analyze and visualize research.

Scopus is one of the respected science repositories, containing more than 45 million records or references from more than 18,000 peer-reviewed journals and trade publications all over the world.

The Scopus team commended Acta Medica Philippina for being a well-presented journal with credible editorial policy focusing on loco-regional content. "Acta Medica Philippina has a very good stand in terms of content and this should be supported," the Scopus team said in an email to the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).

"Acta Medica Philippina should focus particularly on high quality standards of locally sourced and relevant papers," added Scopus team.

Acta Medica Philippina is the national scientific journal published through the collaborative efforts of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) and College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines Manila (CPH-UPM).

Nanotechnology, which is the study of manipulating matter on atomic and molecular scales, involves developing materials or devices possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers. This field of science has gathered enormous significance in recent years and tremendous advancements have been made with a variety of applications in a range of fields of science and technology, including materials sciences, surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, microfabrication, electronics, energy, medicine, etc. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices and it possibly holds solutions to world's problems related to water, agriculture, nutrition, health and energy.

For developing countries, nanotechnology provides a new focus for research through its aim to manufacture from the "bottom-up" approach using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products, showing its potentiality in the form of improved water purification systems, energy systems, healthcare, food production and communications, etc. However, nanotechnology has raised some concerns and speculation about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics. These issues have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on the necessity of special regulation on nanotechnology.

With a view to providing a forum for the academicians, scientists and researchers active in the fields of nano-science and nano-technology to deliberate upon the aforementioned issues and to increase awareness of this field's significance, the Centre for Science & Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre), New Delhi, India in collaboration with the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), Islamabad, Pakistan and the Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia is organizing a 4-days International Workshop on "Nanotechnology in the Edge of Convergence", on November 24-27, 2011 at Selangor, Malaysia. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is among the major sponsors of this scientific event.

ANNOUNCEMENT and GUIDELINES

 APPLICATION FORM

The Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) week celebration became the launch pad of the Lancet Southeast Asia series. The event was held last 11 August 2011 at L'Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City.