Pharmacy on a Bicycle

7 The Elephants in the Room: Noncommunicable Diseases

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases (stroke and heart attack), mental illness, cancer (but not cervical cancer), chronic lung diseases, and diabetes, represent nearly two-thirds of all deaths worldwide. Eighty percent of NCD cases occur in low- and middle-income countries.¹ They will result in a potential loss of $47 trillion worldwide over the twenty years from 2010 to 2030—the equivalent of 75 percent of the global GDP in 2010—if nothing is done to stop them. Cardiovascular diseases and mental illnesses alone will account for 70 percent of that loss.² Regardless of how we measure it, in terms of lives or money lost, NCDs are costly. Yet for the most part, ...