11.
A ‘Disease Tsunami’ Is Sweeping The World : UN
David Bloom, a health economist with Harvard University, is leading a UN sponsored study on global health. According to him, Chronic illness like heart disease and cancer will cost the world an estimated $US35 trillion over 25 years unless concerted action is taken to combat the “tsunami” of such diseases now taking hold in developing countries.
He warns that the world is confronted by a “perfect storm” of diseases which are already gripping the wealthy countries and are also emerging in the more populous developing world. The preliminary results of analysis for the United Nations indicate the world faces a “staggering burden’’ unless it acts to quell the often preventable non-communicable diseases.
According to him, in the year 2010, newly diagnosed cancer cases cost the world about $US300 billion in treatment and output forgone by those with the disease. The bill for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as bronchitis was about $US400billion.
Professor Bloom’s earlier report to the World Economic Forum led UN to take the unprecedented step of calling on world leaders to agree to a public health declaration to focus global attention on fighting non-communicable diseases, 80 per cent of which afflict developing countries and are growing rapidly in China and India.
UN has appealed to the world’s finance ministers to accept this health warning and realize the economic impact the diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure are having. UN feels that action will be costly but inaction is likely to be far more costly.
He warns that the world is confronted by a “perfect storm” of diseases which are already gripping the wealthy countries and are also emerging in the more populous developing world. The preliminary results of analysis for the United Nations indicate the world faces a “staggering burden’’ unless it acts to quell the often preventable non-communicable diseases.
According to him, in the year 2010, newly diagnosed cancer cases cost the world about $US300 billion in treatment and output forgone by those with the disease. The bill for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as bronchitis was about $US400billion.
Professor Bloom’s earlier report to the World Economic Forum led UN to take the unprecedented step of calling on world leaders to agree to a public health declaration to focus global attention on fighting non-communicable diseases, 80 per cent of which afflict developing countries and are growing rapidly in China and India.
UN has appealed to the world’s finance ministers to accept this health warning and realize the economic impact the diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure are having. UN feels that action will be costly but inaction is likely to be far more costly.
“The sheer novelty and glamor of the Western diet, with its seventeen thousand new food products every year and the marketing power - thirty-two billion dollars a year - used to sell us those products, has overwhelmed the force of tradition and left us where we now find ourselves: relying on science and journalism and government and marketing to help us decide what to eat.”
~ Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto