17 April 2025

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to join you here today at the TCT Plus Middle East inaugural international conference on cardiovascular care.

We come from a Region of broken hearts. It is enough to turn on the news to have your heart broken a million times each day.

But the deeper heartbreak is lived by displaced families in Sudan and Syria, civilians under fire in Gaza, and chronically ill patients in Yemen struggling without care.

Non-communicable diseases—including cardiovascular disease—don’t stop in times of crisis. In conflict zones, people face empty pharmacies, chronic stress, and limited access to nutritious food or safe spaces to be active.

In these environments, hospitalizations for heart disease often double or triple due to the lack of even basic care.

But this crisis is not limited to countries in conflict. Cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases are stretching health systems across our entire region.

It may surprise some to know that it is not conflict, natural disaster or a virus that takes the most lives, but diseases of the heart.

Cardiovascular disease remains the world’s number one killer, claiming 18 million lives each year. Alarmingly, nine per cent of these deaths occur in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Our region has the highest burden of cardiovascular disease globally, with over 50 million cases in 2019. Without action, this number could more than double to 108 million by 2045.

This is a race against time—but it’s one we can win.

Heart disease is both the world’s deadliest and one of the most preventable conditions.

86 per cent of CVD deaths could be prevented or delayed through better risk management, prevention and treatment.

To reverse this epidemic, we must address the drivers: obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes—linked to unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and air pollution.

Currently, 90 million people in our region use tobacco. 185 million adults are overweight or obese. With 73 million people living with diabetes, we have the highest burden globally.

Too often, these risk factors go undetected and untreated, leading to damage that could have been prevented.

So what can be done?

Strengthening health systems is part of the solution—but it’s not enough.

We need a whole-of-society response:

Healthier cities;

Cleaner air;

Nutritious food that’s affordable and accessible; and

Regulation that puts health first.

WHO has developed technical tools like HEARTS, MPOWER, and SHAKE—affordable, high-impact interventions that help manage blood pressure, reduce tobacco use, and improve cardiovascular health. These are being used in primary care settings across the region.

Another major challenge is access to essential medicines. WHO is working with countries to improve affordability and availability through local production, stronger regulation, modernized supply chains, and regional pooled procurement.

We are also tackling health-related environmental issues. Our Healthy Cities Network includes 121 cities in 15 countries—promoting community health and building climate-resilient systems.

And in emergencies, we are closing gaps. Since 2017, over 6,500 emergency NCD kits have been delivered to fragile settings, each one supporting treatment for 10,000 people for three months.

Countries must prioritize financing for prevention, access to care, and strong monitoring systems. This isn’t just good health policy—it’s good economics.

Every US$1 invested in cardiovascular and diabetes interventions yields a US$3 return in productivity and reduced costs.

Implementing NCD “best buys” across lower-income countries could generate over US$230 billion in economic and social benefits by 2030.

The path forward is clear—and within our reach. With political will, sustained investment, and regional solidarity, we can transform our health systems and protect the hearts of our communities.

Before closing, I want to commend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s progress on non-communicable diseases, especially heart disease. The Ministry of Health’s efforts to improve access to medicines, promote physical activity, strengthen tobacco control, and make food healthier through salt and transfat regulation are setting an example for the Region.

WHO remains committed to supporting you―and the rest of our Region―every step of the way.

Thank you.