NCD Alliance: A priority for women's health and development

Overview

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), namely cancers, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, are chronic, costly but largely preventable diseases. These four diseases share common modifiable risk factors and are a major cause of poverty, a barrier to economic development, and a serious threat to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2009, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the global NCD epidemic as a “public health emergency in slow emotion”

Produced by: NCD Alliance