Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia

This paper discusses the current global health issues in Saudi Arabia, focusing on noncommunicable diseases and the efforts of the World Health Organization and the Saudi Arabia government to address them.

Running Head: Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia
1
CURRENT GLOBAL HEALTH ISSUE IN SAUDI ARABIA
Name
Professor
Institution
Course
Date

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 2
Abstract
This paper elucidates the current global issues in Saudi Arabia. It discusses some of the
emerging health issues such as noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer
and injuries which are attached to the 70% of all deaths globally. These issues have been
addressed because they highly influence employment, development and implantation of local
health policies. In combating these global health issue, World Health Organization (WHO) is
working together with the Saudi Arabia government stressing on the non-communicable
diseases.
Introduction
Global health can be described as the well –being of populations globally. Health is
important worldwide and therefore improving health and attaining equity has been prioritized.
However, there are emerging global health issues such as non-communicable diseases like heart
disease, diabetes, cancer and injuries which are attributed to the 70% of all deaths globally
(World Health Organization, 2014). At the same time, deaths from infectious diseases such as
tuberculosis, malaria and vaccine- preventable diseases are reducing. This global health issue
affects implementations of health policies deployment and development worldwide. In this case,
noncommunicable diseases must be addressed and continue preventing and controlling infectious
diseases worldwide. The change of economic and social status and improvement of health
structure and surveillance in various nations implies that much focus will be directed to
concentrating on noncommunicable diseases (Holtz, 2013).

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 3
The establishment of health information structures is a priority for WHO in the in Saudi
Arabia. To successfully attain this significant goal, intensive and aligned achievements at
national and international level are needed to address the challenges and gaps in the health report
systems of all nations. This will promote the development of more useful proof to monitor
improvements in the health condition, regionally, nationally, and globally. The national strategy
recognizes involvements for health system reinforcement, health endorsement and regulation of
noncommunicable diseases and communicable, health safety and improving collaboration for
health advancement. Developing and execution of national health employee plan, including
preparation and deployment, must be considered to focus on the current scarcities in the health
staff (Sheikh, Mahamoud, & Househ, 2015).
Literature review
According to WHO, most deaths in Saudi Arabia attributed to noncommunicable diseases
up to 78.0%, communicable 12.6% and injuries 9.4%. World Health Organization (WHO) is
working together with the Saudi Arabia government to advance the health situation emphasizing
on five priorities. These include, addressing non communicable disease issues, preventing and
controlling infectious diseases, strengthening health facilities and offering life-courses thereby
endorsing health. Jabbour &Yamout, (2012), asserts that in this nation consistent and appropriate
health report is necessary for policy development, evidence-based decision-making, suitable
health management, sensible resource distribution, evaluation and monitoring of the public
health condition. Although the need for health report is rising in terms of quality, quantity, and
amount of disaggregation, the reaction to these demands has been hindered because of
disintegration and major gaps and faults in national health report structures

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 4
Discussion on current global health issue in Saudi Arabia
Noncommunicable diseases are responsible for 78.0% of all deaths where heart disease
accounts for 45.7%, cancer 10.3% and diabetes 4.6%. The national level is committed to address
the rising burden from these diseases (Mendis, Rayner , Wickramasinghe , Williams, & McColl,
2017). This has been through provision of heart disease and cancer care, creating resource centre
for diabetes and establishment of a directorate with adequate financial and human resources.
Focusing on this issue has faced various challenges such as poor cooperation from a number of
health care providers like organizations in the public sector for instance, ministry of interior and
also inadequate services at initial health care level. Additionally, weak surveillance structure for
noncommunicable diseases hindering the processing of dependable, regular and similar data.
Increase in childhood obesity which affect about 6-10% children is a serious encounter
affecting the country. Services such as awareness creation and screening are provided by
organizations such as civil society and non-governmental. Also, cardiovascular disease accounts
for the highest percentage in noncommunicable deaths. Studies show that 45.7% of deaths in
Saudi Arabia are as result of heart diseases (Galambos, Sturchio, & Whitehead, 2014). Some of
these noncommunicable are as a result sedentary lifestyles and therefore Saudi Arabia is
focusing on physical inactivity in the process of fighting lifestyle risk issues. Its new aim is to
promote a healthy nation and counteract chronic diseases like other nations. This will be
executed by the National Diet and Physical Activity Strategy, similar with the WHO Global
strategy on health, diet and physical activity. This will lead to an increase the development of
health clubs, licensing gyms and endorsing physical activities in schools (Rossen & Rossen,
2012).

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 5
Consequently, breast cancer mortality cases among women is increasing yearly and it is
predicted to increase sharply over the years. The second common is colorectal cancer with two-
third of these cases detected at distant or regional or stage and this negatively affects family life
and patient’s prognosis. Also, there is an increase in incidences of type 2 diabetes in Saudi
Arabia and there is poor utilization of health services despite services offered for free (Douglas,
Pacquiao, & Purnell, 2018). Also in tobacco control, the country has awareness programs via
national website which has various inclusive services such as clinics appointments and locations
and health promotion and media campaigns .public health services freely offers all treatments
required for smoking cessation and the staff has experience in tobacco control additionally, the
programme has introduced call centre facilities, created a national regulation for smoking and
established an electronic system to keep patients record such medications and follow up visits for
evaluation and monitoring reasons (Torre, 2013).
Moving onwards, priority must be given to reinforcing scaling up programmes and
multisectoral partnership to encounter noncommunicable disease possible factors concentrating
on better physical activity and dietary changes, and also tobacco cessation. Another priority is to
promote communication between nongovernmental and governmental sectors to accelerate
incorporation and overcome disintegration of noncommunicable diseases investigation system.
Development of colorectal cancer regulation programme and screening programme that will
begin in specified centres in all areas. Moreover, in diabetes, awareness campaigns will help in
increasing heath facilities utilization, also focusing of intensifying screening clinics at local
health care level. To decrease type 2 diabetes cases through controlling possible factors and
promotion integration and partnership with other areas for improved preventive measure (Markle
& Fisher, 2014).

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 6
Conclusion
Noncommunicable disease is the leading cause of all deaths globally. Some of the
noncommunicable diseases include cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. In Saudi
Arabia, heart diseases are the leading cause of most diseases. Obesity also causes deaths even in
children and breast cancer among women. The government of Saudi Arabia is working
collectively with WHO to strengthen strategies to help in combating noncommunicable disease.
In this country evaluation and monitoring of the health condition is necessary for policy making
deployment and development.

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 7
References
Douglas, M. K., Pacquiao, D., & Purnell, L. D. (2018). Global applications of culturally
competent health care : guidelines for practice. Cham, Switzerland : Springer.
Galambos, L., Sturchio, J. L., & Whitehead, R. C. (2014). Noncommunicable diseases in the
developing world : addressing gaps in global policy and research. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Holtz, C. (2013). Global health care issues and policies. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett
Learning .
Jabbour, S., & Yamout, R. (2012). Public health in the Arab world. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Markle, W. H., & Fisher, M. A. (2014). Understanding global health. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mendis, S., Rayner , M., Wickramasinghe , K., Williams, J. E., & McColl, K. (2017). An
introduction to population-level prevention of non-communicable diseases. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, cop. .
Rossen, L. M., & Rossen, E. A. (2012). Obesity 101. New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Sheikh, M., Mahamoud, A., & Househ, M. (2015). Transforming public health in developing
nations. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.

Current Global Health Issue in Saudi Arabia 8
Torre, G. L. (2013). Smoking prevention and cessation. New York: Springer.
World Health Organization. (2014). Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014.
Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.