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The heavy burden of poor health
Non-communicable diseases, obesity and the covid-19 impetus for building better health systems
Pandemic builds potential for better global health
The novel coronavirus pandemic has exposed the fault lines in both global and national health infrastructures, highlighting inequalities and structural flaws. There has never been a timelier moment to focus on how to improve the resilience of health systems
The hidden health crisis
A decade of initiatives to combat non-communicable diseases have failed to curb their growth. Policymakers need a more comprehensive approach that recognises the complexity of these health failures and takes lessons from successful infectious disease campaigns
24/August/2020
Obesity casts a big shadow
Rates of obesity are skyrocketing, and more comprehensive policies are needed to fully address the complex causes of the condition
A ruinous epidemic
The obesity crisis has been a long time in the making, gathering force despite more than a decade of individual initiatives to reduce the numbers of seriously overweight people. Comprehensive policymaking that touches on the complex roots of obesity has huge potential to reverse the progress of a deadly epidemic linked to growth in economic prosperity
Disease in disguise
As obesity reaches epidemic levels globally, experts are reflecting on the mixed results of policies implemented over the past decade and asking if obesity should be treated as a disease more than as a lifestyle choice that individuals can modify
Double burden on the poor
Populations in more than one in three low-income countries are hit by a double burden of malnutrition in the form of both obesity and undernutrition. Effective nutrition programmes can help countries overcome the double malnutrition challenge
Imagine a world of good health
Policies to curb NCDs need to consider broader environment for good health
Contagion of a social kind
Non-communicable diseases and their risk factors seem to be common among certain groups of friends and families. Genetic reasons aside, the concepts of social contagion, shared spaces and a tendency for similar people to associate (known as homophily), might explain why these diseases appear to be more infectious than their name suggests
Coronavirus could spur reforms to improve health of city dwellers
The number of people living in cities is projected to rise from 55 % to 68 % of the world’s population by 2050, according to the United Nations. Strong leadership and multi-sectoral planning can make our cities far healthier for human habitation
The promise and challenge of health tech
Can information technology save the world from the rising burden of ill-health? And can personal data be guarded with sufficient vigilance for people to put their trust in the authorities to handle it with due responsibility? There are no easy answers
