PHA-Exchange> Chronic Diseases Beleaguer Developing Countries

[Ghassan Shahrour]

Dear Colleagues of PHA,
Hope you find this article interesting
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Ghassan Shahrour
Al-Yarmouk
Damascus Syria

Chronic Diseases Beleaguer Developing Countries
by Heidi Worley

(January 2006) Developing countries are undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition—from infectious diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia to chronic ones such as heart disease—that threatens to overwhelm their strapped health systems and cripple their fragile economies.

Of the top four causes of death worldwide, three—cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases—are associated with chronic disease. Almost three times as many people die annually from CVD (which includes heart disease and stroke) as from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. And CVD, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes made up 60 percent of the 58 million annual worldwide deaths estimated for 2005—with more than three-quarters of these deaths occurring in developing countries.

In October 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report—Preventing Chronic Disease: A Vital Investment—to raise awareness about this largely invisible epidemic in developing countries and to issue a call to action for national governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector. WHO proposes a new global goal: to reduce the projected trend of chronic-disease death rates by 2 percent each year until 2015. Such a reduction would prevent 36 million people from dying of chronic disease in the next 10 years, most of them in middle- and low-income countries.

Prevention of chronic disease is key to meeting this goal. Yet without urgent attention to the scope of the problem, developing-country governments will not be able to bolster health system resources nor shift the focus of their health services adequately. Although some effective prevention programs have shown success in developed countries (particularly in tobacco control and education), caution must guide application to other settings.


Full Text:
http://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/Content/ContentGroups/06_Articles/Chronic_Diseases_Beleaguer_Developing_Countries.htm

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