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Bloomberg News

Oliver Renick

United Nations — Newly diagnosed cancer cases cost the global economy $300 billion in 2010, as illnesses once believed to be largely confined to wealthier countries took hold in developing nations, a Harvard University economist said during a press briefing hosted by the American Cancer Society Global Health Programs and the United Nations Department of Public Information. 

Tobacco use, alcohol intake, obesity and decreased physical activity have grown in poorer countries, causing the rise of cancer and diabetes, said David E. Bloom, professor of economics and demography at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Boston. Bloom and other researchers held a briefing today in advance of the United Nations High Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases.

The Sept. 19-20 meeting will be the first gathering of the UN Assembly dealing with cancer, cardiovascular illness, chronic lung conditions and diabetes. These diseases cause 60 percent of deaths worldwide, killing 36.1 million people annually, according to an April report by theWorld Health Organization.

“Noncommunicable diseases will evolve into a staggering economic burden in the coming years,” Bloom said. “It’s a huge impediment to the mitigation of poverty.”

Bloom said treating newly diagnosed cancer cases cost $300 billion globally in 2010, and obstructive pulmonary disease -- often correlated with smoking tobacco -- costs $4 billion a year.

Not Confined to Health

“Economic policy makers like ministers of finance and ministers of planning see noncommunicable diseases as an issue confined to the health sector,” a misperception that needs to be addressed, Bloom said. “Dangers of NCDs are well-ensconced in the business screen of the world community,” he said.

The global decline in productivity due to illness and deaths from noncommunicable diseases will reach $35 trillion by 2030, Bloom said, an amount seven times larger than the current level of global health spending. Noncommunicable diseases undermine physical and human capital, as losses of labor put a burden on developing countries, he said.

“The main asset the poor possess is their labor, and that is the most threatened by the noncommunicable diseases,” Bloom said.

Cary Adams, chief executive officer of the Union for International Cancer Control, said people in poorer countries were “getting fatter, lazier, smoking too much tobacco, and eating unhealthy food.”

“It is the poorest people in the poorest nations that suffer the most,” said John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, at the briefing.

Poverty Cycle

Seffrin said more than 80 percent of noncommunicable diseases occur in low and middle-income countries. “Noncommunicable diseases perpetuate the poverty cycle,” he said.

The estimate of the costs of noncommunicable diseases includes medical care, transportation, information and education campaigns, and productivity losses from those who die, Bloom said. Of 14,000 business executives surveyed worldwide, he said half believed that noncommunicable diseases would have a negative impact on their bottom line.

“Think about health spending as not consumption but investment,” said Bloom. “As investment that yields a handsome rate of return.”

“This is a moral issue,” Seffrin said. “Unlike other health problems in the past, we know what’s coming.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Renick in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [email protected].

 

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Evidently Virginia has not read any parts of the proposed haatlhcere bill. Dont feel bad, Virginia! The Congressmen and Senators have not read it either! You are in good company. You or I will never get the kind of coverage those people have. You and I will get whatever they decide we can have. Wait 3 years to see a specialist. That means your overworked family practice dr. says you have cancer or a bad heart, you wait 3 years to see the cancer or heart doctor! Most people save the government a lot of money by dying while waiting! My son lives in North Idaho about 100 miles south of Canada. You can hardly get in to a hospital in CoeurDAlene Idaho or Spokane, WA due to the parking lot being full of Canadian vehicles. These are only the Canadians who can afford to pay cash. POOR Canadians have to sit at home waiting to die. Our government is already managing a haatlhcere system. VA Hospitals! Some are very good, but some are terrible! I have had 3 elderly uncles treated at the Boise Idaho VA. It is excellent for the most part. So is Albuquerque NM where another uncle and a cousin have been treated. But, when my uncle lived in southern NM, I took him to the El Paso VA and it was a filthy dump! He was on the same 20 medications for 20 years and felt lousy the entire time there. When he had to move in with his daughter north of Albuquerque, they were quick to take him off all 20 and replace them with 3. He felt 20 years younger! VA care is hit-or-miss, depending on where you happen to be. Is that what we want here? There are good and bad hospitals in my area. I have the choice to not go to the bad ones NOW! Will I under the government plan? I doubt it. We now have the choice of suing a bad doctor or hospital for malpractice or carelessness. Will we under the government plan? We will have no choice and we will have to just take our chances. Frankly, the chances do not sound promising under the government plan. A word to the wise- if you ever sue a doctor or a hospital, no other doctor will accept you as a patient. We were warned about that after our local hospital and (one nurse and one doctor) almost killed my husband twice in two days. We did not sue because he has a terminal illness and HAS to have doctors! Medical care is far from perfect here now. PLEASE DO NOT LET THE GOVERNMENT MAKE IT WORSE! Virginia, I think you need to go back to watching Soap Operas and American Idol and not bother your little head about any of this. Either that or READ THE BILL! There is a part about increasing the time between pregnancies (FORCED ABORTIONS??) and there is a part about not treating elderly and counseling them to just let nature take its course or make other end-of-life decisions. That means denying treatment, Virginia! That means either giving them enough pain meds so they die in peace or else letting them suffer as they die. EITHER WAY, THEY DIE! I am not ready to accept that.

[Ankit]

hard to say there are some people that are more gneetically predisposed to certain cancers than others we all know some people will smoke 40 a day for 70 yrs and then die of something other than cancer.there is an increased risk of cancer if you have smoked and i'm sure that your friend had a higher risk of mouth cancer than someone who hasn't chewed tobacco but it doesn't mean he will definately get it

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Economic policy makers like ministers of finance and ministers of planning see noncommunicable diseases as an issue confined to the health sector,” a misperception that needs to be addressed, Bloom said. “Dangers of NCDs are well-ensconced in the business screen of the world community,