Noninfectious Illnesses Are Expected to Become Top Killers

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
03 jun 2008--As the world’s population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, noncommunicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organization is reporting.
The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that diseases like diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus and malaria will become less important causes of death as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and traffic accidents claim greater percentages of victims. There will still be wide disparities, the report says. Infectious diseases will remain major killers in Africa but should decrease in Asia.
Dr. Ties Boerma, director of health statistics for the agency, said he had seen more obese people and more smokers in capitals around the developing world.
“We tend to associate developing countries with infectious diseases,” he said, but heart disease and stroke are becoming “the chief causes of death in more and more countries.”
Annual deaths from AIDS are expected to fall to 1.8 percent of all deaths in 2030 from more than 3 percent now, the report said.
Tobacco companies are aggressively marketing to young people in poor countries. Almost a quarter of smokers started before age 10, the W.H.O. said, and one of its surveys of teenagers found that 20 percent owned clothing with cigarette brand logos. Citing freedom of choice, the companies work to break down traditions preventing women from smoking.
Worldwide, 100 million people each year are impoverished by paying for health care, the report said. And 40 percent of pregnant women and infants do not get basic health care or immunizations.