Leaders from the cardiovascular disease prevention community have joined forces to endorse a plan to reduce the global burden of noncommunicable diseases. The plan follows adoption of a global target to reduce premature noncommunicable disease mortality 25% by 2025 by ministers of health attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland last May.
Noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes mellitus, have replaced communicable diseases as the world's major disease burden. Almost half of this burden comes from cardiovascular disease, which is the leading global cause of death, accounting for about 17.3 million deaths each year—a number expected to increase to more than 23.6 million by 2030. In addition, about 80% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where human and financial resources are most limited.