WHO calls for 2% reduction a year in chronic disease mortality -- Zarocostas 331 (7520): 798 -- BMJ

WHO calls for 2% reduction a year in chronic disease mortality -- Zarocostas 331 (7520): 798 -- BMJ: "WHO calls for 2% reduction a year in chronic disease mortality
Geneva John Zarocostas
The World Health Organization has called on governments to mount a serious response to the looming 'invisible' global epidemic of chronic disease.
To ensure that sustained actions are taken worldwide, WHO has set out, in a report published this week, a new target to reduce the death rate from chronic disease by 2% each year until 2015.
This would prevent 36 million deaths "mostly in poor and middle income countries" from chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes.
Of the estimated 58 million people who will die in 2005 about 35 million (60%) will die from chronic disease, the report says, and it cautions that the percentage will rise by a further 17% in the next 10 years unless urgent action is taken.
In the meantime, the number of deaths from infectious diseases is projected to decline by 3% over the next 10 years, it notes.
'This is a very serious situation, both for public health and for the societies and economies affected,' said Lee Jong-wook, WHO's director general. He added, 'The cost of inaction is clear and unacceptable.'
The report, which draws on the latest findings in nine countries (Brazil, Canada, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Tanzania), says, 'It is vitally important that the impending chronic disease pandemic is recognized, understood and acted on urgently.'
Anbumani Ramadoss, India's minister of health and family welfare, said, 'The scale of the problem we face is clear, with the projected number of deaths in India attributable to chronic diseases r"