NCD Alliance

NCDs were under the spotlight in Canberra on the 2nd of March, when the Australian counterpart of the NCD Alliance - “Australians for Global Action on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)”- met with parliamentarians and senior health and aid officials to discuss the global emergency caused by the diseases. It was recognized at the forum that the diseases pose a major barrier to global, social and economic development, exacerbating poverty and increasing health inequities both between and within countries.

(Buenos Aires, 3/4/2011) More than 40 Latin American civil society organizations met in Buenos Aires to launch the Healthy Latin American Coalition (HLAC) and develop a declaration recognizing the grave impact of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the region, not only as a health emergency but as a deterrent to human development and an obstacle in the fight to prevent poverty.

NCDs of the Bottom Billion Conference, 2-3 March, Harvard University Opening Statement by the NCD Alliance delivered by Jean-Claude Mbanya, President of the International Diabetes Federation Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be at this conference speaking on behalf of NCD Alliance.

The Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control is becoming increasingly concerned about the decision to expand the production of tobacco growing in Jamaica which is in direct contravention of the World Health Organization (WHO) Treaty - The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which the Government of Jamaica signed on September 24, 2003 and ratified on July 7, 2005.

Claudine Manizabayo was suffering from shortness of breath and a cough. At first, doctors mistook her symptoms for asthma. Then a clinical team specializing in non-communicable diseases examined her and came back with a different diagnosis--heart failure. In affluent countries like the United States, the symptoms and the diagnosis are feared and familiar among the elderly and people with coronary artery disease. Claudine is only 18. In poor countries like Rwanda, where she grew up in a family of farm laborers, heart failure often afflicts the young and the destitute.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, are the world’s number one killer causing 60% of deaths globally.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has launched a key report on the September 2011 UN NCD Summit.

Eliminating heart disease, diabetes and other non-communicable illnesses may add between 4 percent and 10 percent to the gross domestic product of South Asia including India, the World Bank said. Heart disease is the biggest killer of people between the ages of 15 and 69 years in South Asia, the Washington-based bank said in a report published today. Non-communicable diseases now account for more than half of all disease in the region traditionally plagued by infectious maladies, the bank said.

The transitioning global disease burden now means a world where the majority of mortality is a result of NCDs, even in low- and middle-income countries where 80% of deaths occur.

Many developing countries are now faced with a double-burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, often with a health system that is ill-equipped to address both the health implications, as well as the underlying risk factors.

Overweight and obesity, risk factors for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, and certain forms of cancer, are responsible for a significant portion of the global burden of chronic disease.