NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES NOW A THIRD WORLD PROBLEM

I find the world facinating because it is nearly impossible to predict the final results of the actions of people, religious institutions, countries and multi-national corporations. Doing good can bring unforeseen problems. There is an epidemic of disease in the third world, and surprisingly it is not a problem of infectious diseases. The western world has spent time and much money in arresting the spread of communicable diseases.According to the World Bank infant mortality decreased by half between 1960 and 2005 in 80% of the counties for which there is data, and global life expectancy , in these countries,increased from 31 years in 1900 to almost 67 years by 2009. It is in the interest of the developed world to arrest the spread of communicable disease as with aeroplane travel they can spread so very quickly.People live longer in the under-developed countries. Because of their population numbers 80% of deaths from NCD`s now occur in low and middle-income countries up from 40% in 1990. NCD`s that are preventable or treatable in developed world are often death sentences in the poorer countries. The number of people living on $1.25 per day, 1.1 billion has not changed. The state of Connecticut allocates more to health care than the 38 low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The poor in developing countries cannot afford the preventative care available in the west. Diabetes, Cancer and other NCD`s are the diseases prevalent after adolescent years and are due to tobacco, alcohol and processed foods.

But it is not just a problem of people. There is no regulation of tobacco, alcohol and processed foods in these countries and the western companies selling these products are more than happy to increase sales where there are no patient advocacy groups and civil legislation. Big tobacco companies are a major factor using bilboards and cartoons to sell their products.  Health care organizations dominated by the west, at the present, are only interested in curtailing iinfectious diseases and preventing death at birth. A report issued in 2007 by the WHO found that programs to treat NCD illness received less than 3 % of the nearly 22 billion spent on global health. It is obvious that the world health organizations have to
focus on NCD`s in the future in the poorer countries.

There is a price to pay for everything, even doing good.

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