HMG7120 Global Challenge of Non-Communicable Diseases Essay: Analysis

This essay delves into the escalating global challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with a specific focus on the unique vulnerabilities and challenges faced by low-income nations. It provides an in-depth analysis of the changing burden of NCDs, contrasting them with infectious diseases and highlighting the shift in disease profiles driven by demographic and epidemiological transitions. The essay examines the global impact of NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. It further investigates the economic and social consequences, including poverty and the strain on healthcare systems, and it underlines the importance of urgent strategies to manage risk factors like obesity, smoking, and unhealthy diets. The paper also explores the current and future threats, emphasizing the need for comprehensive interventions from governments and organizations to address this growing epidemic.

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
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Global Challenge: Non-Communicable Diseases
Introduction
The budding of prevalence along with the incidence of “prosperity diseases” amongst the
wide layers of contemporary populations is somehow new phenomenon in demographic history
of civilization. For many decades, communicable diseases were the primary causes of mortalities
in many nations across the world. The life expectancy was often restricted by unmanaged
pandemics. Following the conclusion of the World War II, with growing medical research
attainments in regard to antibiotics, vaccination, and enhancement of quality of life, non-
communicable diseases (NCDs) has started causing main problems in low-income nations across
the world (Gruskin, Ferguson, Tarantola & Beaglehole, 2014, pp. 773). Non-communicable
diseases are increasingly becoming more prevalent in developing nations in which they double
the burden of infectious diseases. Cancer, heart diseases, chronic pulmonary, diabetes, as well as
mental illnesses has become a major burden for low-income nations or developing nations across
the world. For a while, the NCDs were linked to economic development and so-called diseases
of the wealthy in the society (WHO, 2014, pp. 45). However, since the daybreak of the 3rd
millennium, non-communicable diseases have swept the whole world, with a growing trend in
low-income economies, in which the transition have more restraints to handle the double burden
of infectious in addition to non-infectious diseases in deprived environment that is characterizes
by ill-health processes. It is forecasted that by 2020, non-communicable diseases will account for
nearly 80% of the global burden of the disease, which will cause seven out of 10 deaths in low-
income nations, compared with less than half nowadays (Jakovljevic, 2014, pp. 140).

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Thus, if the current trend continues regarding the spread of NCDs, the healthcare systems
in low-income nations will be unable to support the burden of these diseases. Therefore, effective
and urgent strategies and measures are required to be undertaken to manage the risk factors like
obesity, smoking cigarettes, high blood pressure, diet and inactivity. The costly plus extended
treatment of non-communicable diseases raises the equity challenge between and within nations
(Namusisi et al., 2011, pp. 47). Hence successful prevention and management of the epidemic
NCDs cannot be attained by health sector only, but need a broad range of interventions from
organizations and government. The paper will investigate the burden of NCDs in low-income
nations, the changing burden of NCDs, global challenge of NCDs, and current and future
threats .
Challenges of Non-Communicable Disease
Developing nations defined as low-income plus lower-middle-income nations-are
experiencing a double burden of illness. Whilst they continue the battle against infectious
diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, they are more and more failing prey to the
growing tide of NCDs. Non-communicable diseases accounts for more than half of the general
burden of illnesses in lower-middle-income nations, as well as close to one-third in low-income
nations. The facts demonstrates that, in absolute terms, this NCDs burden amplified by around
30 percent in 2000-2015 and affects individuals at a tender age than high-income nations,
worsening social plus economic costs in these countries. Cardiovascular diseases have been cited
as the primary contributor to the increase in these costs (Mendis & Chestnov, 2014, pp. 131).
Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Low-Income Countries

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NCDs in low-income nations around the world will no longer be disregarded or
perceived as a disruption from the business of deterrence along with the control of infectious
illness. The case has been stressed in the latest reports explaining the global burden in regard to
death, and disability-adjusted life years and too their economic effect. Until lately,
communicable diseases have been practically the only precedence for universal health policy.
Nonetheless, they do not represent the primary supplier to the burden of the illness based on the
disability-adjusted life years or death in any part of the globe at a distance from sub-Saharan
Africa. NCDs cause over half of mortalities in adults amid 15 and 59 years in all parts of the
world apart from the South Asia and sub-Saharan, in which infectious disease conditions,
comprising HIV/AIDS, lead to one-thirds of mortalities, correspondingly (WHO, 2014, pp. 47).
Demographic plus epidemiological changes are moving the disease burden from
communicable to NCDs in lower-income nations. Thus, the combination of demographic, as well
as epidemiological transformations is generating rapid shifts in the disease profile of several low-
income countries. Diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, along
with other communicable diseases is on the increase in low-income nations. This is have been
attributed to the growing prevalence of key modifiable behavioural risks, like unhealthy diets,
as well as tobacco use, plus declines in the infectious diseases, which suspiciously result in the
deaths of children and adolescents (Terzic & Waldman, 2011, pp. 225). Similarly, the ageing
populace and growth increases the pace of the change from communicable, maternal, neonatal,
as well as nutritional diseases to NCDs. Several poor nations, like Botswana and Bangladesh are
encountering major declines in terms of fertility rates. Consequently, between 1980 and 2015,
the median age in these nations moved from 17 to 26 years and from 17 to 24 correspondingly.

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As the figure and share of adults carries on to increase in low-income nations, the burden of the
NCDs will too rise. The eventual demographic transition comprising growing proportion of
elderly, declining fertility rates, as well as considerable growth of median age in modern counties
became extensively acknowledged as populace aging (Kruk, Nigenda, & Knaul, 2015, pp. 431).
The majority of this change of morbidity and deaths structure occurred in developed nations in
Western Europe, Japan, as well as North American some many years ago. Similar pattern of
aging population linked to greater prevalence and occurrence rates of major NCDs replicated
broader scale much later in low-income nations. The global change of public health environment
to a bigger degree has been attributed to the hastened speed of globalization after the conclusion
of the Cold War period. Specifically fascinating, present advancement belongs to the countries
accountable for majority of the worldwide growth, which are acknowledged as emerging
economies (Hoisseinpoor, Bergen & Kunst, 2012, pp. 912).
Additionally, the anticipated speed along with the degree of the shift in the disease profile
to NCDs would present primary problems to the health system of several low-income nations.
Several of these nations have historically concentrated on acute care for patients with infectious,
maternal, as well as neonatal diseases, rather than on preventive or chronic care, which several
NCDs need. The spending of the government remains very low in poor countries presenting
more problems to the country in terms of meeting the needs of the patients with NCDs. The
average state of low-income nations spends around $23 per individual yearly in health
(purchasing power parity adjusted) (Bollyky, Templin, Andridge & Dieleman, 2015, pp. 1464).
In contrast, the United States government spends around $3,860 per individual on health matters,
whilst the United Kingdom (UK) government spends around $2,695. In several low and lower-

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middle-income nations, the majority of the health services and drugs are still bought out of
pocket, whilst 35.7% was funded by donors. When prepaid financing is not accessible via
insurance or through donors, several vital healthcare services can be too costly for poor families
(Checkley et al., 2014, pp. 432). Therefore, with minimal access to primary along with
preventive care, working-age population in lower-income nations are more probable to develop
and get late diagnoses for breast, as well as cervical cancer, hypertension, plus other NCDs. With
no access to chronic care and with scarce resources to pay for the treatment out of pocket,
working-age persons in these lower-income nations are more probable to become disabled and
die while young. Studies have shown that lower-income countries are facing an epidemiological
transition toward NCDs where the healthcare systems of the majority of the nations are not
sufficiently prepared to handle the growing problem of non-communicable diseases (Hall,
Correa, Yoon & Braden, 2012, pp. 10).
Global Challenge of NCDs
In the latest years, NCDs have worldwide displayed a growing impact and trend on health
standing in populations with excessively greater rates. NCDs are primary causes of deaths
globally and a grave public health risk in many parts of the world. NCDs are chronic conditions
with somehow slow development, as well as rarely totally curable. Thus, the four common non-
communicable diseases include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory. The risk
factors linked the NCDs globally include tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diet, as well as
inadequate physical exercise. Studies show that in 2012, 68 percent of the worldwide mortalities
were linked to non-communicable diseases. Whilst the deaths due to NCDs in the European
region are approximated to be consistent, the highest increase will occur in the South-East Asian

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regions, Eastern Mediterranean Region and Africa. The growing prevalence of non-
communicable diseases in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is mainly driven by the
ageing populace and is propelled by fast and spontaneous urbanization, as well as shifting
lifestyles (Islam & Biswas, 2014, pp. 7). Additionally, several low-and middle-income nations
across the world are struggling with the elevated incidence of communicable diseases plus an
overloaded health care system, worsening the effect of non-communicable diseases, for instance,
via premature deaths. Around 48 percent of non-communicable diseases in low-and middle-
income nations take place among individuals below the age of 70 years, while 28 percent of
NCDs are reported in high-income nations in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO)
approximates that the cumulative economic losses linked to diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, as
well as chronic respiratory illnesses to exceed the mark of US$70 trillion over the period 2011-
2025 based on a business as a normal scenario in low-and middle-income nations (Ferlay et al.,
2015, pp. 365).
World Health Organization projects that by 2020, non-communicable diseases will
account for about 80% of the global burden of the diseases, which will cause more deaths
resulting in more problems to the world, especially in developing nations. WHO projections that
the global NCDs burden would rise by 17 percent in the subsequent ten years, and in Africa, the
burden will be 27 percent (Skirbekk, Loichinger & Weber, 2012, pp. 770). Nearly half of all
mortalities in Asia are currently linked to non-communicable disease, which account for around
47 percent of global burden of NCDs. More than 80 percent of diabetes and heart disease deaths,
90 percent of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) deaths along with two-thirds of all
cancer mortalities take place in developing nations around the world. Thus, the transition from

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infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases in low-and middle-income nations have been
propelled by diverse factors, often symptomatic of economic growth: a shift from conventional
fast foods high fat, sugar and salt, a decline in physical activity with inactive lifestyles, as well as
transformed cultural values like growing numbers of females consuming tobacco (Prince et al.,
2015, pp. 550).
In addition, non-communicable diseases around the world have become a barrier to
economic developing resulting in unequal distribution of results. This has resulted in growing
poverty in the world in the recent years because of the burden of NCDs. In many countries,
poverty exposes individuals to behavioural factors for non-communicable diseases, which will
subsequently make NCDs to be the primary driver for poverty. Thus, the socioeconomic effects
of non-communicable diseases are too affecting the achievement and realization of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with grave effects for poverty decrease programs
towards economic development. Consequently, acknowledging the significance plus urgency, the
United Nations (UN) High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of non-communicable
diseases was organized in 2011. The World Health Organization (WHO) champions
policymakers to design effective approaches to stop “tomorrow’s epidemic” of NCDs (Ogura &
Jakovljevic, 2014, pp. 176).
Furthermore, mental health had only lately been integrated by the WHO as a non-
communicable disease. Thus, the worsening burden of NCDs in low-and middle-income
countries frequently comes accompanied by other factors that constrain health of the public.
Findings from Bangladesh data demonstrates that between 1986 and 2006, mortalities from non-
communicable diseases rose from 8 percent to 68 percent in a rural region. The declining trend

Global Challenge: Non-Communicable Diseases 9
of cardiovascular diseases in the United States (US) since 1980 is a testimony to the reality that
even the growing trend of non-communicable diseases as insuperable because they may be
reversed. Thus, the three levels of causes for Non-communicable diseases comprise fundamental
drivers, behavioural risk factors, as well as metabolic and physiological risk factors. In
developed nations, the majority of the resources are at the final level plus a volte-face of
approach is essential, particularly for low-and middle-income nations (Alwan, 2011, pp. 176).
Current and Future Threats
The NCDs presents a significant challenge to the world health systems, especially in the
lower-income countries that will be adversely affected by the changing trends from
communicable and infectious diseases to NCDs. The expected speed and scale of the disease
profile to NCDs will present considerable challenges to the healthcare systems in several lower-
income nations. In addition, the failure of countries with low-income to boost health spending to
deal with growing problem of NCDs will continue to increase the burden of the NCDs and will
continue to strain resources. The failure to increase spending will extend the current problem
past greater rates of unnecessary deaths and disability. At the family level, premature death along
with disability from NCDs will lead to less income and more catastrophic health costs.
Moreover, adults who have grown in the midst of extensive poverty along with deprivation can
be more vulnerable to functional decreases from NCDs at tender ages. Provided with the degree
of the increasing cases of NCDs, failing to address this growing trend in the disease profile
would imply greater health plus welfare costs for nations in the future and can lower national
productivity along with competitiveness (Ferlay et al., 2015, pp. 367).

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Conclusions
NCDs are more widespread in developing nations and it has become a major burden,
especially the latest decades. Growing epidemic of NCDs has been associated with the risk
factors that include smoking, obesity, alcohol, unhealthy diet in addition to inactivity. Low-
income along with the lower-middle-income nations are experiencing an emerging NCDs crisis,
which the majority of the healthcare systems in low-income nations are unprepared to deal with
the NCDs. This comes a time when the majority of the developing nations are still battling to
contain infectious diseases plus enhance child along with maternal health, leading to a double
burden of the disease. Therefore, enhancing the prevention, as well as diagnosis of non-
communicable diseases and delivery of proper care to people in developing nations will need a
stronger emphasize in addressing many problems, amongst them the lack of access to appropriate
care, healthcare facilities, as well as professionals and the need to recover health education along
with literacy (Dans et al., 2011, pp. 680).
The policy gaps will too have to be linked to make targets clear plus attainable. Though
many developing countries have responded to the problem through policies and measures, the
NCDs trends remain globally passive primarily since developing nations have been, so far,
contended with embracing national conferences and complying with global recommendations
rather than pragmatic decisions, like prohibiting smoking in public places, controlling alcohol
abusers, promoting physical activity and healthy diet and enhancing primary healthcare for
screening along with early discovery of chronic illnesses. These measures will sufficiently help
developing nations and even developed nations to address the problem of NCDs (Lozano et al.,
2012, pp. 2095).

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