Combating Non-Comm Diseases

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course focuses on the rising burden and increasing challenges associated with the shift from infectious and communicable diseases (ICDs) to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as the major causes of mortality, morbidity, and lost years of healthy life. In September 2011, the United Nations held a high-level meeting on non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control that culminated in a political declaration to address the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases worldwide. The last time any disease received such high-level political attention was in 2001 at the high-level UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS. The Global Fund was created after a G8 meeting that supported efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. In comparison, subsequent attention and action after the NCD Summit last year has been paltry. For high-income countries NCDs and injuries account for 95 percent of the burden of disease; that share is 65 percent for low- and middle-income countries as the more successful middle-income countries move ever closer to the high-income norm. NCDs are ‘the’ major health burden worldwide. They include cardiovascular disease, most cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. NCDs kill about 57 million people globally each year, 80 percent of whom live in low and middle-income countries. This course will provide the students with an in-depth understanding of the challenges of NCDs and the policies and strategies to curb them in low- and middle-income countries. The first half of the course will cover the rising global burden of NCDs in terms of total and premature deaths and the leading causes of morbidity. The students will also learn about the environmental, metabolic and behavioral NCD risk factors such as air pollution, high blood pressure, high glucose level, alcohol, smoking, and obesity. In addition, there will be an overview of the rising costs and the macro- and micro-economic impact of NCDs at the state and household levels as well as the principles of behavioral economics and its relationship to NCDs. The second half of the course will present a comprehensive framework for the prevention and treatment of NCDs. This framework will cover the interventions for behavior change and prevention of NCDs, the integrated service delivery model for the effective management of NCD. At the end of the course, there will be a discussion on the role of the government and different sectors in adopting policies to respond to NCDs as well the different financing models to cover them.