July 17, 2018

WHO Report Launched on the Benefits of Addressing Noncommunicable Diseases

A WHO report launched in May around the World Health Assembly tackles the issue of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The report, titled ‘Saving lives, spending less: a strategic response to NCDs’, makes the case for investing in preventing and treating NCDs such as cardiovascular disease and cancers by calculating the potential cost, cost-effectiveness, and the return on investment (ROI) in terms of deaths averted and economic gain from increased productivity. The report also shows how, if interventions to prevent and treat NCDs are scaled up globally, the world will move much closer to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.4; to reduce premature death from NCDs by one-third by 2030.

While NCDs had been considered primarily a problem of the developed world until recently, many developing countries are in epidemiological transition and the rate of NCDs as well as mortality and morbidity due to NCDs are rising on a global scale. NCDs now cause around 71% of all deaths according to the WHO report. In addition, due to the chronic nature of NCDs, treatment is typically long-term and can be expensive; putting a disproportionate burden on the world’s poorest. This new WHO report used cost-effectiveness analysis to make the case for scaling up prevention and treatment; analysis that could be used by policy-makers to advocate for more attention and resources to address these chronic conditions.

Read the WHO press release and the report.