Non communicable diseases (NCDs), mainly cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung disease, are responsible for roughly two out of every three deaths today. Other NCDs, including mental illness, accidents, renal disease and dental disease, kill or maim millions more. The World Health Organization (WHO) is now putting the final touches on a draft Action Plan…

Global health knows no boundaries.  There are no dividing lines that respect illness and disease, nor are there places where prevention is irrelevant.  I was privileged to join a group recently who saw what a dedicated community can do to protect itself from the threat of non communicable disease, in this case the Tohono O’odham reservation in Arizona.  The Tohono O’odham Nation is composed of approximately 30,000 Native Americans,…

Public Health Institute, together with Caring and Living as Neighbors and Global Health Council, will convene a conference on "NCDs in Children and Adolescents" during March 19-20.  The conference has been sponsored by the Medtronic Foundation, …

As part of the outcome of the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs, the political declaration adopted acknowledged the special challenges faced by children and youth in preventing and treating non communicable diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic lung disease (including asthma). It is…

Seven billion people are walking the earth, and for the first time in human history, more than half of us are living in cities. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all of us are living healthier lives, however. The toll of non communicable diseases (NCDs) is rising rapidly, especially among the poor cutting a devastating swath into economic productivity in many nations.

NCDs – primarily cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, chronic lung disease and mental illness – are…

I was recently honored to participate as an observer representing the Public Health Institute (PHI) at the…

Public Health Institute is participating in the UN High Level Session on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York. PHI's President and CEO Mary Pittman, DrPH, Center for Climate Change and Global Health Director Cristina Tirado, PhD, and Special Advisor for Global Health Policy and Development Jeff Meer are registered observers at the conference. In…

September 15, 2011

Dear Colleague,



Next week, the United Nations will hold its first High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York. I am proud to represent the Public Health Institute at this…

The State Department has announced the following official US Delegation to the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs (September 19-20).

United States Delegation to the UNGA HLM on Non-Communicable Diseases

New York, New York

September 19-20, 2011

Chief Delegate

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius

Secretary of Health and Human…

The August 26, 2011 issue of The Lancet is dedicated to the global obesity epidemic. The issue was timed to coincide with the upcoming United Nations high-level  meeting concerning non-communicable diseases. The first high profile global meeting dedicated to obesity was sponsored by the…

As has been widely reported, including here and here, negotiations at the United Nations have stalled over an "outcomes document" that is to be approved by a High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York on September 20.  Negotiations that were to have been concluded by now…

Among the many issues to confront the global health community in tackling the rising tide of non communicable disease (NCDs) is how best to measure the extent of the epidemic. This has become an urgent issue in the short period remaining before the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs, scheduled to take place at the UN General Assembly on September 19-20, 2011.  Many advocates argue that without a concrete…

One missing piece in the policy debates around non communicable diseases (NCDs) is an accurate account of their economic impact.  In order for policy makers to begin to grapple with the epidemic sweeping the globe, they need to have a fairly good idea what illnesses like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease and cancer are having on economies from Bujumbura to Beijing. 

Thanks to some research sponsored by the World…

It is hard to find a life that has not been touched in some way by a non communicable disease (NCD).  Whether it's a mother who has breast cancer, a father with diabetes, or a cousin with asthma, virtually all of us have personal knowledge of what it is like to live with -- and sometimes die with -- a chronic illness.  That basic fact makes the upcoming UN High Level Meeting on NCDs this September of…

Today the Presidents of the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association published an unprecedented joint statement concerning support for the UN High Level Meeting on Non Communicable…

Charlotte Block of Project Hope organized a session on May 12 at the CORE Group in Baltimore on "Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) -- The Unheralded Global Epidemic."  In addition to Ms. Block, who spoke on the global reach of diabetes, the session also featured presentations by Dr. Vivien Tsu of PATH on cancers…

At a meeting on April 20, 2011 of the Global Health Council Non Communicable Disease (NCD) Roundtable, US Government representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) listed four priority areas that the delegation intended to focus on at the upcoming first global ministerial meeting on healthy lifestyles and non communicable diseases. Holly J. Wong, Associate Director of the Office of Global…

There have been several significant developments within the past few weeks concering the President's Global Health Initiative (GHI), a planned $63 billion six-year effort to tackle some of the globe's most persistent health…

...What are India and the foreign donors doing about India’s considerable NCD burden?  While I don’t know the answer to this question, I do know that India will join other nations at the upcoming UN High Level Session on NCDs, as the first time the UN body will officially address the world’s largest source of mortality. Its delegation will speak about NCDs, what can be done to prevent them, and how…