A year on from the historic World Health Assembly resolution on Oral Health in May 2021, the first concrete step towards the full implementation has taken place.
The resolution recognised the global burden of oral diseases and their associations with other conditions, urging Member States to address shared risk factors, enhance the professional capacity of oral health professionals to deliver consistent and quality care, and to include oral health in universal health coverage benefit packages.
Now WHO has developed a global strategy ahead of translating it into an action plan by 2023.
The global strategy sets 4 overarching goals to guide Member States, to:
- develop ambitious national responses to promote oral health
- reduce oral diseases, other oral conditions and oral health inequalities
- strengthen efforts to address oral diseases and conditions as part of UHC
- consider the development of targets and indicators, based on national and subnational contexts, building on WHO guidance, to prioritize efforts and assess the progress made by 2030
“Oral health is a fundamental right. It is very concerning that despite burdening billions of people around the world, many oral diseases which could be prevented or treated with simple, evidence-based and cost-effective interventions. People continue to experience pain and suffering, alongside severe financial pressures on families and communities.
The impact of poor oral health around the world is enormous and action is urgently needed to benefit all, young and old, across the lifecourse” said Dr Bente Mikkelsen, Director for Noncommunicable Diseases, World Health Organization.
Read the WHO news article in full with access to the draft document: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/landmark-global-strategy-on-oral-health-adopted-at-world-health-assembly-75
