Achieving the targets of sustainable development goals (2030 agenda) for congenital disorders in Asia: Bottlenecks and interventions

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in November 2015 which included a set of 17 measurable "sustainable development goals" (SDGs). The SDGs included targets to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age by 2030, universal health care coverage, reduction of premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by 33% as well as support the development and research for medicines for both communicable and NCDs. Although some successes were achieved in combating communicable diseases and improved childhood mortality rates, health systems in Asia are generally characterized by lack of accurate epidemiological information on congenital disorders, lack of human and financial resources, and inadequate focus on public health strategies to ensure targeted interventions, low level knowledge on congenital disorders amongst the community and healthcare providers and the ethical dilemma of managing rare congenital disorders in an environment of low national health expenditures. These bottlenecks must be addressed systematically and interventions such as the use of innovative epidemiological tools to overcome lack of data, increased efforts to standardize rare disease nomenclature and classification and renewed interest in birth defects registries by countries in the region must be considered. Targeted curative and public health approaches currently used in thalassaemia and neural tube defects may be used for other congenital disorders in Asian countries. The implementation of congenital disorders-related research, prevention, care, and treatment delivery services must be integrated into existing health systems in order to be effective to achieve the targets of SDG2030.