NCDS CAUSE 74% OF GLOBAL DEATHS-WHO

Non-communicable disease(NCD)s like heart disease, cancer and diabetes are responsible for 74 percent of deaths globally and cracking down on risk factors could save millions of lives, the World Health Organization said recently.

A report from the UN health agency shows that NCDs, which are often preventable and caused by an unhealthy lifestyle or living conditions, kill 41 million people every year, including 17 million under the age of 70.

“Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease now outnumber infectious diseases as the top killers globally,” said the report, titled ‘Invisible Numbers.’

NCDs are not only the world’s biggest killers, but they also have serious impacts on how people weather infectious diseases, as the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated.

People living with NCDs like obesity or diabetes were at greater risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from the virus, the report said.

“The data paint a clear picture. The problem is that the world isn’t looking at it,” the report warned.

Contrary to popular belief, these “lifestyle” diseases are not mainly a problem of wealthy countries.

A full 86 percent of the global premature NCD deaths happen in low- and lower middle-income countries, the study said.

While the numbers are startling, the WHO stressed this is a largely fixable problem, since the main risk factors for NCDs are known, as is how to best address them.

Tobacco use, unhealthy diet

Tobacco use, unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity and air pollution are seen as the main causes driving the soaring NCD numbers.

Tobacco use alone is responsible for more than eight million deaths each year.

Another eight million deaths are attributable to unhealthy diets, meaning either too little, too much or too poor quality food, the report said.

Harmful alcohol use, which among other things causes liver cirrhosis and cancers, kills around 1.7 million people annually, while physical inactivity is responsible for an estimated 830, 000 deaths.

But WHO argued in its report that there are clear, proven ways to drive down those risk factors, insisting that if all countries implemented them, 39 million lives could be saved over the next seven years.