Global Strategies for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and Non-Communicable Diseases

Nakatani, Hiroki

The control of neglected tropical disease (NTD) follows a slightly different cycle. The consensus is clear, with relevant resolutions adopted at the World Health Assembly. WHO has also developed various technical guidelines and road map, 5 with clear targets to achieve by 2020. The unique part is resource mobilization. As the name NTD implies, the populations most affected tend to be marginalized and voiceless. Hence, little attention was given to this group of diseases until WHO and its partners bundled together 17 tropical diseases, which are not significant individually but collectively present serious public health and human rights challenges. The humanitarian gesture to help "the poorest among the poor" attracted the corporate social responsibility arms of major pharmaceutical companies, resulting in drug donation programs. Replacing direct ODA contributions, such drug donation programs are forming a unique private-public partnership in the case of NTD. This global health cycle operated well for communicable diseases, such as HIV and NTD, which were designated goals in the MDGs era. What will be the new paradigm for emerging health challenges in the SDG era, covering 2016-2030? One needs to understand the health challenges that serve as parameters to shape our forthcoming global health. The first parameter is mortality. Figure 3 shows the top 10 causes of death in countries with different income levels. Worldwide, the three biggest killers are ischemic heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, 0.8 billion people live in low-income countries, where communicable diseases remain the major killers. On the other hand, the majority of the world's population lives in middle-income countries, where morbidity patterns have shifted to non-communicable diseases and are closely similar to those in high-income countries.