On July 1, 2014 director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Francis Collins reports from a meeting of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) that increased attention to the chronic diseases is needed. The GACD is a collaboration of national research agencies. For its 1st still ongoing initiative the GACD focused on research into prevention measures for hypertension. An upcoming 2nd initiative will focus on the prevention of Type II diabetes, another chronic disease gaining momentum throughout the world. In the article published in the NIH Director’s blog Collins states that with increasing affluence a society’s health burden shifts from infectious to chronic disease. Yet already almost ¾ of the global chronic disease mortality occurred in low- or middle income countries in 2012.
A variety of chronic diseases including diabetes have also been linked to food contact substances. In the concluding remarks of the article Collins calls upon global leaders to assume responsibility for that the enormous threat to health and economic well-being posed by chronic diseases may still be curbed.
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Francis Collins (July 1, 2014). “Global Health: Time to Pay Attention to Chronic Diseases.” NIH Director’s blog.
