“Non-communicable diseases pose major development challenge”

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose a major development challenge to developing countries like India, where the annual loss of household income due to them is estimated to be Rs.1 billion, Shanthi Mendis, Coordinator of the Cardiovascular Program for Prevention and Management of NCDs, World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva, said on Sunday.

Delivering the Prof. M. Viswanathan Gold Medal Oration 2010 under the auspices of the M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, Dr. Mendis said India's GDP would have been 4-10 per cent higher if not for the catastrophic health expenditure, productivity erosion and impoverishment associated with the four leading NCDs —cardio-vascular disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease.

The WHO expert pointed out that NCDs constituted the single biggest cause of deaths, contributing to 60 per cent of all global deaths. Worse still, 90 per cent of premature deaths from NCDs were from low and middle income countries. WHO estimates that by 2015, the number of deaths from the four leading NCDs would increase by 21 per cent in the South Asian region, Dr. Mendis said.

Identifying tobacco, high salt-high-fat diet, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption as the four modifiable risk factors for NCDs, Dr. Mendis said the propagation of healthy lifestyles could not be seen as the task of the Health Ministry alone and ought to be taken up as the mandate of all sectors of government and civil society.

In spite of the well-documented challenge from NCDs to development, the global commitment to tackle the problem is wanting due to competing priorities —maternal and child health, water and sanitation needs —and the clout of tobacco and alcohol manufacturers.