Chronic illnesses called epidemic among poor - The Boston Globe

Chronic illnesses called epidemic among poor - The Boston Globe: "Chronic illnesses called epidemic among poor
Report urges global action
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | October 5, 2005
MAMELODI, South Africa -- Aaron Mathe, 17, took shallow breaths. He had learned four years earlier that he had Hodgkin's lymphoma, and received chemotherapy treatment. But the 10th grader said his doctor recently gave him bad news: His illness appears to be terminal.
''He said he had nothing more he could give me, because the chemotherapy hurts my heart,' Mathe said softly.
Here, in the midst of this vast township of 1 million people a few miles east of Pretoria, Mathe's situation is emblematic of what the World Health Organization calls a ''largely invisible epidemic' -- the overwhelming number of chronic disease cases in poor countries.
In a report released today, the WHO estimates that 80 percent of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes were in low- to middle-income countries, contrary to popular belief that these diseases largely afflict people in wealthy countries.
The report also estimates that 17 million people die prematurely each year from these chronic diseases, and calls for a 2 percent annual reduction in deaths from these diseases. If that goal is reached, according to the report, countries would prevent the deaths of 36 million people in the next decade -- and nearly half the people would be under the age of 70.
Of the projected 58 million total deaths worldwide this year, an estimated 35 million people will die from chronic diseases -- more than double the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, according to the WHO.
''We can stop this global epidemi"