Updated January 19, 2011: An important editorial, published in The Hindu, responds to The Lancet’s series on disease in India, noting that the country’s campaign against chronic diseases must move into high gear.

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The much anticipated The Lancet series on health challenges in India, a series of papers on India’s path to universal health coverage, reveals the full extent of the opportunities and difficulties for health in India and points out that “a failing health system is perhaps India’s greatest predicament of all.” While the longstanding health challenges of infectious diseases and maternal and child mortality continue to prevail, in recent years, the incidence of chronic disease in India has skyrocketed – costing millions of lives and having an impact on the national economy that we’re just beginning to understand. And coupled with the “perilously low density of educated health workers across the country” the editors argue, the country’s health is indeed in crisis.

Three members of Arogya World’s Indo-US Scientific Steering Committee, Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, Dr. D. Prabhakaran and Dr. V. Mohan, have papers included in this important and impressive series.

We recently learned that the UN General Assembly adopted the Modalities Resolution in late Dec 2010, laying out some vital details for the United Nations Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) planned for later this year.

We’re thrilled to report that the Summit will take place on September 19 and 20, 2011, at UN headquarters in New York. The decision to make the Summit two days is a real victory for the chronic disease community, and particularly for the global health leaders, governments and organizations such as the NCD Alliance who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this happen. Arogya World founder Nalini Saligram said, “all roads in the chronic disease world lead to this UN Summit on September 19th and 20th. Now we have dates on which to focus our efforts to rally the world to come together in the fight against NCDs.”

The decision to spend two days on NCDs makes the Summit substantive and gives world leaders sufficient time to deliberate on key NCD issues in three roundtable sessions.

Happy New Year! To kick off 2011, we are highlighting some recent news stories on diabetes and the enormous worldwide burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In the run-up to September’s UN Summit on NCDs, we are working to raise the profile of these important issues, and encourage the world’s leaders to make a strong commitment and serious investment in fighting diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasingly occupying a central part of the agenda at major world policy and business meetings. The World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit held a panel discussion to highlight the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, on November 14, in Delhi, coincident with World Diabetes Day.

This week, the chronic disease community is watching closely and waiting anxiously for the UN Summit Modalities Resolution, in which the United Nations General Assembly will determine the format of the UN Summit on Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) to be held in September 2011. This summit marks an unprecedented opportunity to raise the profile of these devastating diseases and will bring together leaders from around the world for concrete action on NCDs.

Released today, the December 2010 issue of Health Affairs offers a number of thoughtful articles focusing on chronic disease. Featuring several studies from different parts of the world, the issue is dedicated to “Battling Chronic Disease Worldwide,” and highlights effective strategies to prevent and treat diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, from Chile to China.

Prevention programs and greater utilization of primary care services, they found, are two of the best strategies to help people live longer, healthier lives while reducing health care spending. Arogya World Advisor Raj Dave comments on a business model for emerging markers.

In September 2010, CNN teamed up with the social network Foursquare to launch a “Healthy Eater” badge that Foursquare members could get by visiting any two participating local farmers’ markets. Kudos to CNN and Foursquare for using their platforms to take on social causes, for finding innovative ways to encourage people to eat right, and for trying to make eating healthy cool and fun.

Authors of a new report on worldwide funding for NCDs predict a future of difficult choices for resource-poor countries that must contend with a large infectious disease burden at the same time that the incidence of NCDs is on the rise.

In their analysis of donor spending on NCDs in developing countries, Nugent and Feigl found that though 60% of deaths around the world are from NCDs, and 80% of those occur in developing countries, less than 3% of overall development assistance for health in 2007 was dedicated to NCDs. Still donor funding for NCDs to developing countries grew by 618% between 2001 and 2008, in large part from private non-profit donors.

On November 11, 2010, The Lancet published online a new series titled Chronic Disease as a Development Issue in preparation for the UN High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on non-communicable diseases, scheduled to take place in September of 2011. This is the third in a series of papers on chronic diseases that The Lancet has produced in the last five years. It is wonderful that they have set themselves such a high bar, saying that “Our measure of success for this Series will be a central place for chronic disease prevention in the global development agenda during the coming year and beyond.”

Each year, November 14 marks World Diabetes Day, a day set aside to increase awareness of the disease, and educate the public about diabetes risks and prevention. A few days ago, on November 11, we launched the framework for our Healthy Schools and Healthy Workplace Seals of Approval in India, new programs to fight diabetes in India, where the incidence of diabetes is extremely high and growing.