Many factors affect child and adolescent mortality in high-income countries. These factors can be conceptualised within four domains—intrinsic (biological and psychological) factors, the physical environment, the social environment, and service delivery. The most prominent factors are socioeconomic gradients, although the

According to this new report released by WHO on July 10, 2014 at the United Nations General Assembly, 38 million people die each year from NCDs (28 million in developing countries), mainly from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.

Worldwide, 3.3 million deaths in 2012 were due to harmful use of alcohol, says a new report launched by WHO. Alcohol consumption can not only lead to dependence but also increases people’s risk of developing more than 200 diseases including liver cirrhosis and some cancers. In addition, harmful drinking can lead to violence and injuries.

This modelling study undertaken by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and published in latest issue of the Lancet estimates how achieving globally-agreed targets for six important health risks between 2010 and 2025 will reduce deaths caused by the big-four chronic diseases: cancers, diabetes, lung disease and cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke)

In the past decade, a sense of urgency has started to pervade alcohol regulation in South Africa. The burden of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity is among the highest in the world, and its effects are made worse by persistent socio-economic and structural inequalities. Moreover, alcohol is also a principle risk factor for infectious and chronic diseases, as well as a tenacious barrier to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Its consumption and negative externalities have therefore become a public health and development crisis.

Quantification of the disease burden caused by different risks informs prevention by providing an account of health loss different to that provided by a disease-by-disease analysis. No complete revision of global disease burden caused by risk factors has been done since a comparative risk assessment in 2000, and no previous analysis has assessed changes in burden attributable to risk factors over time.

Cancer is a leading cause of disease worldwide. An estimated 12.7 million new cancer cases occurred in 2008. Lung, female breast, colorectal and stomach cancers accounted for 40% of all cases diagnosed worldwide. In men, lung cancer was the most common cancer (16.5% of all new cases in men).

The World Health Organization is the only body that can promote health through the use of international law. It should make alcohol its next target, says Devi Sridhar.

Mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders are highly prevalent and are responsible for 14% of the global burden of disease expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The resources that have been provided in countries to tackle the huge burden are insufficient, inequitably distributed, and inefficiently used, which results in a large majority of people with these disorders receiving no care at all. Even when available, treatment and care often is neither evidence-based nor of high quality.

As the UN begins its meeting to devise strategies to tackle NCDs, Indian public health activists say it was a wake-up call for the health authorities in India. Some of them expressed concern that the meeting may be used to push industry agenda.

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