Policymakers should increase their sense of urgency to stop the global spread of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes that threaten the health and economies of industrialized and developing nations alike, Emory University global health researchers say.
Writing in the The New England Journal of Medicine, authors K. M. Venkat Narayan, MD, Mohammed Ali and Jeffrey Koplan, MD, assert that the worldwide spread of chronic conditions, also known as non-communicable diseases, offers a unique opportunity countries around the globe to unite in their efforts to find solutions for reducing the health and economic burdens of these diseases.
Ali is an assistant professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health. Koplan is vice president for global health and director of the Emory Global Health Institute.
"There is a unique opportunity now for global cooperation to tackle non-communicable diseases," says Narayan, professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health and professor of medicine in the Emory School of Medicine. "In fact, unless non-communicable diseases are tackled, goals relating to child health and infectious diseases cannot be achieved nor can economic development be sustained."
Chronic diseases account for 60 percent of all deaths worldwide. Trends also suggest that the major risk factors for these diseases – hypertension, high glucose levels, obesity and inactivity – are all on the rise, especially in developing countries. Six out of the 10 risk factors for mortality worldwide are related to chronic non-communicable diseases.
According to estimates, China, India and Britain will lose $558 billion, $237 billion, and $33 billion, respectively, in national income over the next decade as a result of largely preventable heart disease, strokes and diabetes. In the United States, cardiovascular disease and diabetes together cost the country $750 billion annually. Narayan and his co-authors also cite examples of how global cooperation and connections have benefited the movement to reduce chronic disease, including the development and testing of a new screening test for cervical cancer in India that could result in a lower cost screening test for millions of women worldwide.
