NCDs in the Developing World: Looking for Solutions
By: Nellie Bristol
Diagnosing and treating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can be a complicated and expensive proposition. Trying to do so in a low resource setting with poor health infrastructure and a dearth of doctors, particularly specialists, makes it that much more difficult. Nonetheless, according to experts, many of the most common chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, can be mitigated through population-wide measures including a variety of policy changes. The World Health Organization in its Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases 2010, released in April, listed several “best buys” in reducing NCDs in a cost effective manner. They include banning smoking in public places and warning about the dangers of tobacco, raising taxes on alcohol and tobacco, reducing salt in food and eliminating trans-fats.
A high powered group of health experts including Partners in Health Founder Paul Farmer and Julio Frenk dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, listed a range of cancers responsive to prevention and treatment in low- and middle-income countries as part of a call to action in an August, 2010 Lancet. For example, curbing tobacco use could prevent lung, head and neck, and bladder cancers while reducing human papillomarvirus infections could cut cervical, head and neck cancer. In addition, early detection could reduce the impact of cervical, breast and colorectal cancer while several lymphomas could be curable with systemic treatment.
