Silent Killers

People affected by humanitarian crises face enormous, unexpected challenges. To help, global relief efforts often focus on meeting urgent needs for food, water and shelter.

But major crises also interrupt critical, ongoing care and prevention for people with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes or heart disease. Despite a significant need to ensure uninterrupted care, chronic diseases are often not considered in emergency responses, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These and other chronic diseases— often called silent killers— account for 71 percent of deaths globally, with 85 percent of premature deaths occurring in middle- and low-income countries.

When armed conflict broke out in the city of Marawi, Philippines in 2017, over 350,000 people fled from their homes. Three years later, approximately 70,000 individuals remain displaced, with many of them at risk of developing or worsening NCDs due to interruptions in access to care and medicines, poor living conditions, stress and lifestyle habits. Without proven models for delivering this specialized care amid a humanitarian crisis, aid groups cannot ensure people living with NCDs receive the care they need.

Saving Lives, Blazing Trails

To help connect patients with lifesaving prevention, care and treatment, Abbott and its foundation the Abbott Fund are partnering with the humanitarian organization CARE in the Philippines.

In addition to the program’s focus on identifying and facilitating care for individuals with diabetes, hypertension, and NCD risk factors (e.g., obesity), the program aims to set an example for how to support health systems in the delivery of quality NCD care in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

The program currently works in camps and transitory sites to provide NCD care to people displaced by the Marawi conflict. In each target area, the project has established “NCD clubs,” government-mandated platforms through which NCD testing, monitoring, follow up, and education activities are organized and delivered by trained volunteers. This community-based approach relieves a great deal of the burden of service delivery from the local health system and demonstrates an option for successful NCD care for crisis-affected populations.

Impact

Though the program only started in 2019, outreach is already delivering results in Marawi. Abbott and CARE have improved access to testing, treatment and care for those who need it most, and early monitoring reports show that 21% of diabetic and pre-diabetic patients have lowered or controlled their blood sugar.

And it’s not just patients who are benefiting from this powerful partnership. In keeping with CARE’s focus on centering women in their work, the project recruited local women with healthcare backgrounds to serve as NCD club leaders. In their capacity as leaders, the women are not only trained to deliver a package of NCD screening and patient management services, they are also empowered to advocate for the needs of their club members. For example, this includes alerting and holding accountable local government and health systems when critical medications are unavailable or inaccessible.

Lastly, by building local capacity to identify and monitor NCD patients, reinforcing health service referral systems and creating accountability mechanisms, the program is also having a significant impact on the local health system.

By moving beyond simply treating those with NCDs to engaging impacted communities in advancing health outreach, the CARE and Abbott partnership is pioneering new, innovative approaches to treating diseases in crisis settings.

The CARE partnership in Marawi is one part of Abbott’s broader global effort to address diabetes, heart disease and other NCDs through “Future Well” programs that aim to find new ways to outsmart the drivers of chronic disease. For more information, visit abbott.com/FutureWell.