WHO Urges Africa to Boost Patient Safety for NCD Care on World Patient Safety Day 2026
WHO urged African countries to strengthen patient safety in noncommunicable disease (NCD) care on World Patient Safety Day 2026. WHO Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Janabi made the call earlier today, noting NCDs like diabetes, cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory diseases caused 43 million global deaths in 2021 and 37% of African Region deaths in 2019—up from 24% in 2000.
Janabi explained that NCD care involves years of consultations, tests and treatments where each step risks avoidable harm from delayed diagnoses, medication errors, poor follow-up and communication gaps between health services. Stigma, discrimination and medicine/technology access barriers further increase these risks across diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and self-management stages.
To counter this, WHO urged expanding NCD access while improving safety via stronger primary healthcare, health worker training and supportive workplaces, integrating patient safety into NCD policies, strengthening harm reporting systems, investing in safe medicine/tech use, and empowering patients to question unclear care. With nearly two-thirds of regional NCD deaths premature (vs 41.7% globally), Janabi stressed everyone should be protected from avoidable health journey harm.
Will African governments implement these patient safety measures for NCD care, or will rising disease burden outpace systemic response?