After years of focusing the majority of its attention on HIV/AIDS (and to a lesser extent malaria), the global health community is finally waking up to the fact that the biggest health problems now facing developing countries are actually ‘non communicable diseases’ such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. And not before time: 80% of global deaths from these diseases occur in developing countries, and already cause double the number of deaths that result from things we more normally associate with these parts of the world, such as infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and malnutrition.[1]
Although the UN and its specialised health agency, the WHO, have already started discussing how to respond to this issue, real flesh should be put on the policy bones at a special UN Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases, to be held in New York in September 2011. We can expect whatever global agreement emerges from this gathering to focus on prevention (watch out Big Food and Alcohol), as well as making treatments and diagnostics more readily available in developing countries.
None of this is going to be easy, no matter what is agreed and what funds are committed in New York. The international response to the AIDS crisis in the late 1990s and 2000s highlighted the difficulties of delivering modern medicines and treatments to patients in developing countries, the vast majority of which have dilapidated health infrastructures and demoralised and underfunded health workforces, a large proportion of which has emigrated to better opportunities in countries like the US.
In order to bring some perspective to this issue, CMPI will be discussing this very issue ahead of the NY Summit in Geneva -- the administrative and policy heart of the UN. Our inaugural “Geneva Round Table” event (13th July) will focus on the challenges faced by clinics and hospitals in responding to this epidemiological shift, and we are lucky enough that Dr Eric Roodenbeke, the head of the International Hospitals Federation, has agreed to give his perspective based on his extensive knowledge of hospital policies and health systems approaches.
It should be a great event, and the guest list includes ambassadors, health attaches and other members of the UN health community. If you happen to be in Geneva on 13th July, please do drop by for what should be a most illuminating discussion!
