On Sept. 20 in New York City, world leaders ended the first United Nations summit on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), signing on to a UN pact that seeks to reduce the 36 million deaths caused by NCDs each year. The “big four” NCDs — cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases — share four risk factors associated with western style socio-economic development: unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol. A joint study by Harvard Public Health and the World Economic Forum estimates that NCDs will cost $47 trillion over the period 2010 to 2030. It also notes that a list of “best-buy” interventions developed by the World Health Organization to counter the pandemics could be implemented with an estimated cost to governments of $11 billion per year. These include reducing use of tobacco, salt and trans fats, and improving education and universal access to basic medicines and technologies. Challenges lie ahead, though, in that governments, health systems and businesses have yet to recover from the continuing financial and economic crisis. Thus, advanced countries are likely to keep resisting further global funding to combat NCDs. Innovative financing mechanisms will be needed to close the gap. Moreover, prevention of NCDs pushes the boundaries of what world leaders have dealt with in global health matters. The pandemic is not caused by a discrete, identifiable virus. Instead, it stems from the same technological and economic progress that has enabled major population growth and helped address significant health problems of the past. These now appear to have turned against us. — (Excerpt from the Montreal Gazette editorial) __
