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Global Health Agencies Partner To Fight Chronic Disease

Posted on: Monday, 16 November 2009, 14:57 CST

A coalition of the world’s top public health agencies laid out plans on Monday to invest tens of millions of dollars into researching heart and lung diseases in an effort to combat a global epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs).

The alliances of agencies said the health impact and socio-economic costs of CNCDs are "enormous and rising."

According to experts, some 388 million people will die prematurely in the next decade of CNCDs, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, some cancers and lung disorders if action is not accelerated to address the problem.

"The epidemic of chronic disease in the world has accelerated. We urgently need to understand how to reverse the trend, not just in small trials, but in all the world communities," Oxford University's David Matthews, executive director of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), told Reuters.

GACD chairman Dr. Abdallah Daar of the McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health in Toronto said he expects the center will invest tens of millions of dollars in coordinated research programs over the next five years.

He could not specify a precise figure on the projects since grants have not yet been awarded.

Roughly 11.5 million deaths are attributed to high blood pressure, tobacco and indoor air pollution from cooking stoves each year, the alliance said, making these three subjects its top priorities.

Although high blood pressure and tobacco use are often viewed as health problems among wealthier nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists them as the top causes of death globally.

Governments and wealthy donors have invested billions of dollars into fighting infectious diseases such as malaria and AIDS in developing countries, but chronic disease is a growing threat in these nations as well.

Experts say China and India will lose $558 billion and $237 billion respectively in national income in the next ten years from diabetes, heart disease and stroke unless action is taken.

The GACD was established in June by six of the world's leading health research agencies:  Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the Indian Council of Medical Research, Britain's Medical Research Council, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Together, these agencies oversee nearly 80 percent of global public health research funding.

Elizabeth Nabel, director of the U.S. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the NIH and a member of the GACD, said the focus would be on "implementation science."

"We as institutions have already funded a significant amount of work in hypertension and tobacco control, for example -- so much of the basic science and the evidence base is already known," she told Reuters.

The GACD would apply the knowledge gained from wealthier nations' experiences with chronic disease to help fight the problem in developing countries, she added.

But political partnering is critical, Daar said.

"We don't want this to end with the publication of a paper, we want it to change policy and save lives."

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On the Net:

• Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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