By Jean-Luc Butel
The Global Health Council's 38th Annual International Conference connected some of the sharpest, most powerful thinkers in academia, government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
Fortunately, attendees started taking steps to establish a clear strategy for tackling a growing but under-addressed challenge in both the developed and developing world: the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), or chronic conditions resulting from lifestyles, genetic predisposition and the environment. NCDs include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and lung diseases — conditions that affect our families, our friends and our colleagues.
In September, the United Nations convened its first ever "high-level meeting" on NCDs. Now is the time for a major initiative partnering government officials, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, academia and the private sector.
The fact that NCDs have become such a problem in low- and middle-income countries might catch some by surprise. People typically associate these areas with infectious conditions like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Infectious diseases are certainly still a threat. But shifting demographics, lifestyles and environmental factors in places like China and India have led to a dramatic increase in NCDs. In 2008 alone, the "Big Four" NCDs — heart disease, lung disease, cancer and diabetes — claimed 36 million lives globally. And nearly 80 percent of those deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
In part because NCDs have received insufficient attention from the international community, their rates of growth are projected to increase. Estimates suggest NCDs will account for three out of every four deaths globally by 2030.
And NCDs don't simply reduce the quality and length of life, they also severely handicap social and economic development. Nearly a third of the people who die from these diseases are under 60 years old and in their most productive years.
Low-income families struggling with NCDs are often unable to work and forced to pay for medical services directly out-of-pocket. As a result, they fall deeper into poverty. The World Health Organization predicts that in China alone, the national income losses resulting from these diseases will total more than half a trillion dollars between 2005 and 2015. In India over that period, losses are expected to hit $237 billion; and in Russia, $303 billion.
Those figures are staggering, and cannot be neglected any longer. With the concentrated effort of public officials working in tandem with international institutions, non-governmental organizations and private companies, we can make major progress against NCDs. Much of their devastation is the product of poor nutrition, lack of exercise, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. We know that health and wellness education can make a difference in the choices people make. And we also need to strengthen health systems to provide better diagnosis, treatment and disease management.
The private sector has a pivotal role to play. The workplace is a tremendous venue for education and incentivizing healthy choices. Already, organizations spanning the globe have banded together to create the Workplace Wellness Alliance, which promotes healthy lifestyles and better health and well-being among employees and their families.
Medtronic is among the many corporations that have also reached out to support public health in the broader community. The Medtronic Foundation has a major program underway to combat rheumatic heart disease, a long-term consequence of rheumatic fever and strep throat. This type of heart disease, which has been all but eradicated in the developed world, claims 350,000 lives a year in developing countries.
As a medical device manufacturer, Medtronic also recognizes the role technological advances can play in combating NCDs in developing countries. But devices, therapies and algorithms on their own will not be enough to successfully overcome NCDs.
Governments, international institutions and other stakeholders have important work to do as well. Many developing countries lack the health infrastructure and health care delivery models required to reliably deliver quality care to needy patients.
India, for example, is home to 20 percent of the world diabetic population — roughly 50 million people. Yet there are only 6,000 diabetes specialists in the entire country. As a result, many Indians suffering from this condition can't find providers with the relevant training and expertise. Nor do most low- and middle-income nations have adequate hospital facilities or transportation infrastructures to enable people to obtain access to quality care on a timely basis.
The most effective solutions will have to include the private sector.
As UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon stated: "Success requires public-private partnerships. It requires political vision and resource mobilization across sectors, across ministries and across borders. We also need businesses to be there in full force, and not just the health industry."
Left unabated, NCDs will cripple entire generations in the developed and developing world, cutting life short and impeding economic growth and progress. It is time for the public and private sector to mobilize, working together to solve our generation's greatest health and development challenge.
Jean-Luc Butel is executive vice president and group president, international, at Medtronic, the world's largest medical technology company.