The acting American Samoa governor, Faoa Aitofele Sunia, has called on the newly established American Samoa Non Communicable Diseases Coalition to find ways to scare people about the effects of lifestyle disease.
Faoa says he knows the coalition wants the governor to issue an executive order, proclaiming an NCD emergency in American Samoa.
But he says the group needs to find a stronger term than the word emergency to describe the seriousness of these diseases in American Samoa.
"We need to find a way to tell our people that we are going to die sooner than we are supposed to, when the good lord had meant for us to come up if we don't watch what we eat and if we don't do the right things to take care of our health."
The acting American Samoa governor, Faoa Aitofele Sunia,
Non communicable diseases account for 75 percent of deaths in the Pacific every year and American Samoa has very high levels of risk factors, such as poor diet, obesity and alcohol use.
