While no one should forget for one moment the perils which communicable diseases pose for many nations, a new World Health Organization report out today shows that non-communicable diseases, NCDs, are gaining fast as leading causes of death.

For many nations, who have yet to conquer communicable diseases, the arrival of preventable ones at the same time is a devastating double hit.

Most of the deaths occurred in low and middle income nations, this story says.

A fall meeting, the United Nations Summit on NCDs, is planned to evaluate what can be done. This is only the second summit of this kind.

AAAS/ Science

“The chronic health problems of post-industrial societies have now spread to the developing world, says a new report by the World Health Organization.

“Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer now cause more deaths worldwide than all other diseases combined, according to the first global status report on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) released at the WHO Global Forum in Moscow today. Communicable diseases such as malaria and AIDS are now outpaced by NCDs in every region except Africa. Chronic diseases, many of which are preventable, accounted for 63% of the 57 million deaths worldwide in 2008. Of those 36 million deaths, 80% occurred in low- or middle-income countries.

“Health leaders from around the world are continuing to meet in Moscow the rest of this week to prepare for theUnited Nations summit on NCDs in September. It will be only the second U.N. summit convened to address a health issue; the first, held in 2001, focused on AIDS and led to the creation of the Global Fund.”

Source: AAAS/Science, April 27, 2011