Undark: The Growing Urgency of Killer Chronic Diseases
“Chronic diseases — a term that primarily refers to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease — are responsible for 88 percent of all U.S. deaths and 70 percent of all deaths worldwide per year, according to the World Health Organization. Yet they receive far less media attention and public health dollars than infectious disease. Deaths from these conditions, collectively referred to as non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, the health agency estimates. And their global impact is increasing as regions improve economically and adults live longer on average worldwide, as revealed in a 2016 report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation…” (Lloyd, 11/2).