Remembering the forgotten non-communicable diseases

The forthcoming post-Millennium Development Goals era will bring about new challenges in global health. Low- and middle-income countries will have to contend with a dual burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Some of these NCDs, such as neoplasms, COPD, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, cause much health loss worldwide and are already widely recognised as doing so. However, 55% of the global NCD burden arises from other NCDs, which tend to be ignored in terms of premature mortality and quality of life reduction. Here, experts in some of these 'forgotten NCDs' review the clinical impact of these diseases along with the consequences of their ignoring their medical importance, and discuss ways in which they can be given higher global health priority in order to decrease the growing burden of disease and disability. ; Merck ; Univ Melbourne, Sch Populat & Global Hlth, Melbourne, Vic 3053, Australia ; Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, St Marys Hosp, Dept Med, London W2 1NY, England ; KEMRI Wellcome Trust Res Programme, Kilifi, Kenya ; Univ British Columbia, St Pauls Hosp, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y8, Canada ; VA Med Ctr, Med Serv, Birmingham, AL USA ; VA Med Ctr, Ctr Surg Med Acute Care Res & Transit, Birmingham, AL USA ; Univ Alabama Birmingham, Sch Med, Dept Med, Birmingham, AL 35294 USA ; Univ Alabama Birmingham, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Epidemiol, Birmingham, AL 35294 USA ; Mayo Clin, Coll Med, Dept Orthoped Surg, Rochester, MN 55905 USA ; Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Natl Heart & Lung Inst, London, England ; Ctr Addict & Mental Hlth, Toronto, ON, Canada ; Tech Univ Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany ; Univ Toronto, Dalla Lana Sch Publ Hlth, Toronto, ON, Canada ; Univ Toronto, Dept Psychiat, Toronto, ON, Canada ; UofT, Inst Med Sci, Toronto, ON, Canada ; NIDA, NIH, Rockville, MD USA ; NIAAA, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA ; Hosp Alemao Oswaldo Cruz, Inst Educ & Hlth Sci, BR-01323903 São Paulo, Brazil ; Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola ...