Illustration by Joelle Bolt
How to Curb Chronic Disease
An international public-private effort is required. Now.In 2010, The World Economic Forum Global Risk Report ranked the rise of chronic diseases as the second most severe of all identified risks for our global population.
Chronic non-communicable diseases—such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and most cancers—account for 60 percent of all deaths worldwide. And it is only going to get worse. Over the next decade, if not addressed effectively, chronic diseases will increase by 27% in Africa, 25% in the Middle East and 21% in Asia and the Pacific, accounting for 75% of all deaths globally.
It’s a problem that neither the developed nor the developing world can afford: One half of those that die from chronic diseases are in their productive years. So we have an economic as well as a humanitarian obligation to address chronic diseases. The world waited too long to tackle HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. In this cases we shouldn’t—we can’t—delay our action.
What can be done to combat this rising tide of chronic diseases? We can start with prevention through wellness programs. A big dent would be made in disease incidence by tackling the eight major risk factors, which are:
- Smoking
- Physical inactivity
- Poor diet
- Alcohol consumption levels
- Poor standard of care compliance
- Poor stress management
- Insufficient sleep
- Lack of health screening
Chronic disease costs, combating it pays. For example, one out of three incidences of cancer could be avoided through a wellness program involving a healthy diet, physical activity and smoking cessation.
To have a real impact, the subject of wellness must be on the lips of everyone in the workplace, in schools, and in communities. Effective leadership is needed, and I believe that this can be provided by a new public-private institution that develops prevention and wellness programs for all.
The Young Global Leaders in World Economic Forum (WEF) has created a taskforce that will develop programs, using in a bottom-up approach that will engage schools and communities across the world. It will be designed as an extension to the employee wellness programs in corporations sponsored by WEF (see http://wellness.weforum.org/).
To combat infectious diseases, effective global programs already exist. A good example is GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, which in ten years has prevented more than four million premature deaths. Let’s take as an example Tanzania. There, chronic diseases now account for more deaths than communicable diseases, yet there is no international mechanism (like GAVI) to support efforts to control and prevent the rise of chronic diseases.
Tanzania’s Minister of Health and Social Welfare, David H. Mwakyusa, has asked the international community for help. We are responding with the taskforce.
If you’d like to join the fight to prevent chronic diseases, contact me on Twitter.com @BjarteReve. Ideally, there will be a mass movement to mobilize society, businesses and individuals in prevention and wellness programs, in Tanzania and all around the world.
Author Bio:
Bjarte Reve is CEO of Oslo Cancer Cluster, Norway (www.oslocancercluster.no), a non-profit organization committed to acceleration of the development of new cancer treatments. He was chosen by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2009.
Photo: Illustration by Joelle Bolt
