Combating chronic disease in developing countries.

摘要

Globalisation has affected every aspect of modern life, and health and disease are no different. The global health landscape is rapidly shifting away from one dominated by infectious diseases to one characterised by various chronic conditions. These diseases-cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases-now cause more than half of all deaths worldwide, 80% of which occur in low-income and middle-income countries. If present trends continue unabated, annual deaths from chronic diseases will reach 41 million by 2015, and almost half of these will be in people younger than 70 years. Since the major causes of chronic diseases are known, half of these deaths are preventable.2 The health catastrophe provoked by this global surge of chronic disease is also an underappreciated cause of poverty that impedes the economic development of many countries. Thus, we believe it is vital that the international public health community makes chronic disease prevention a worldwide priority.