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…

During Spring and Summer of 2012, World Health Organzation (WHO) staff and interested member states have been  at work preparing a series of documents as follow up to the September 2011 High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). They have pored through hundreds of comments, position papers, speeches and technical information to create…

Dr. Nicholas Alipui, director of programs at UNICEF, announced last week that the agency has decided to update its iconic information resource "Facts for Life" to include information about non communicable diseases (NCDs) in children and adolescents. Speaking at a Ministerial breakfast as part of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on July 6, Dr. Alipui said that by updating "Facts for Life" with information about NCDs,…

As those who have followed the United Nations proceedings on non communicable diseases (NCDs) know, one piece of unfinished business is the establishment of global targets to help quantify the global response to this increasing epidemic. On May 25, the delegates to the World Health Assembly took a large step in that direction, by agreeing to the world's first NCD target.  As widely reported,…

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, …

Many global health donors are focused on providing medicines, paying for diagnostic technologies, and building hospitals and clinics in places where few health care resources exist.  These items are critical to diagnosis and care, and are relatively easy to measure.  Donors like to fund them because they can be counted and named, and their benefits are well-known. The problem is that providing for only these tangible things does not by itself build the kind of global health architecture that…

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…

After the dust settled from the UN High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in September, the really hard work began.  Delegates from around the globe who had heard speech after speech about the depth of the problem, returned to capitals and began to grapple with their own health planning processes. In many places, there is a clear consensus on the need to put national programs in place…

Because climate change is already affecting health in the United States and around the world, we all have a stake in the negotiations now underway in Durban, South Africa at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.  Public Health Institute's Center for Public Health and Climate Change has developed a one-stop web presence for updates from COP17, and related news and…

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine's lead article this issue is about non communicable diseases (NCDs). Authors Lisa Rosenbaum and Daniela Lamas review the existing evidence, and agree with WHO…

One criticism of the UN High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), held in New York over September 19-20, is that donor nations came to the table, but made no real financial commitments to deal with the rising tide of NCDs. In part because of the global financial crisis that is squeezing all major sources of development assistance for health, but also because of the enormity of the…

On Nov. 3-4, the Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations (CAMI), a project of PHI, convened a symposium in Washington, DC, on “Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs) for Reproductive Health.” The gathering was attended by more than 100 product developers, researchers, academics, funding…

One of the opinions that bubbles up consistently in the global health community is the difficulty and expense of working on chronic illnesses in developing countries.  The costs to prevent, detect, and treat illnesses like cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease and diabetes are high, the complexities involved are too stringent, and the staff and resources necessary are simply not available.  At the far…

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…

Public Health Institute (PHI) on September 19, 2011, held a satellite event at the UN High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).  The panel discussion "Climate Change and NCDs: Creating a Climate for Health," was moderated by PHI Center for Climate and Global Health Director Dr. Cristina Tirado, and held at the UN Church Center in New York.…

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…

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…

Donors, including governments and international institutions, have been notoriously stingy in funding non communicable disease (NCD) programs related to global health.  Economist Rachel Nugent has estimated that less than three percent of all donor assistance for global health is for work on NCDs like cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes, while Dr. Chris…