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Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the world’s biggest killers, bringing hardship to rich and poor nations alike. It’s estimated that the NCD burden will increase by 17 percent in the next ten years, and in the African region by 27  percent.A NCD is a medical condition or disease that is non-infectious and non-transmissible among people — mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and type 2 diabetes.

Many of these deaths associated with these conditions are largely preventable through four shared risk factors — tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and the harmful use of alcohol.

Additionally, significant concerns continue to rise in regard to pollution and a toxic environment in household air, food insecurity, clean water and the adverse effects of rapid urbanisation and population overcrowding.

In response, the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of World Health Organisation, endorsed the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020.

“WHO and other UN Organisations will support national efforts with upstream policy advice and sophisticated technical assistance, ranging from helping governments to set national targets… such as raising tobacco taxes, reducing the amount of salt in foods and improving access to inexpensive drugs to prevent heart attacks and strokes,” said Dr Oleg Chestnov, Assistant Director-General Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health WHO.

However, these four lifestyle risk factors and their associated diseases often miss the most vulnerable victims of NCDs: the very poor, children and pregnant women.

High mortality rates among these groups are often associated with infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, streptococcus, human papilloma virus, hepatitis B and rubella.

However, according to the World Heart Federation, “infectious disease deaths are projected to decline by about 7 million over the next 20 years, cardiovascular disease and cancer deaths are expected to increase by 10 million.”

Pregnant women often suffer from heart disease and maternal diabetes that can lead to death during or after pregnancy. Taken together, these endemic NCDs account for around 20  percent of the disease burden among the world’s poorest billion.

“Increasingly cancers, including some with global impact such as cancer of the cervix, liver, oral cavity and stomach, have been shown to have an infectious aetiology. In developing countries, infections are known to be the cause of about one fifth of cancers,” describes the WHO Global Action Plan.

“High rates of other cancers in developing countries that are linked to infections or infestations include herpes virus and HIV in Kaposi sarcoma, and liver flukes in cholangiocarcinoma. Some significant disabilities such as blindness, deafness, cardiac defects and intellectual impairment can derive from preventable infectious causes,” the authors add.

This highlights the importance of integrated platforms of care that address clusters of related conditions whenever possible. Continued strengthening of social protections such as education and awareness programmes will help highlight the importance of NCD and ID health services, screening and treatment programmes.

What’s being done? Policymakers, educators, health care providers, corporations, municipal authorities, the media and others are starting to work together to raise awareness of NCDs. Together, we can make a difference.

• The writer is a doctor and an international health columnist that works in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s goals of disease prevention and control. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement.