The role of public health professionals and paediatricians in this respect is of great importance. Changes in disease patterns With the foreseen regression in the prevalence of communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases and accidents will be among the main causes of ill health in children for the next few years. Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region will have to face the double burden of dealing with both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Many noncommunicable diseases start in childhood. Their prevention depends on a change in lifestyle, a challenge which has to be faced.
Smoking is an example.
Recent studies indicate that those who cannot quit smoking usually started the habit in childhood. Emergence of new diseases, as well as the reemergence of previously controlled diseases, will continue during the next decade, especially with advances in transportation facilities. AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are current examples. The increasing number of working women, with its positive effects on family income, might affect promotion of breast-feeding, a major preventive strategy for infant health. Home health care might also be affected.