Our Time: A Call to Save Preventable Death From Cardiovascular Disease (Heart Disease and Stroke)

Worldwide, the aging population, globalization, rapidurbanization, and population growth have fundamentallychanged disease patterns. Noncommunicable diseases(NCDs), of which cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts fornearly half, have overtaken communicable diseases as theworld’s major disease burden. CVD remains the No. 1 globalcause of death, accounting for 17.3 million deaths per year, anumber that is expected to grow to 23.6 million by 2030.Increasingly, the populations affected are those in low- andmiddle-income countries, where 80% of these deaths occur,usually at younger ages than in higher-income countries, andwhere the human and financial resources to address them aremost limited.1The epidemiological transition occurring is exacerbated bythe lack of vital investment in sustainable health policies toaddress and curtail the risk factors associated with CVD andNCDs. Recognizing the profound mismatch between the needfor investment in the prevention and control of CVD at theglobal and national level and the actual resources allocated,the international CVD community, under the umbrella of theWorld Heart Federation, joined the NCD community to callfor a United Nations (UN) High-level Meeting on NoncommunicableDiseases, held in September 2011. At thismeeting, heads of state signed a Political Declaration thatcommitted governments to the development of 4 specificmeasures to address the NCD burden in a specific timeline:(1) Recommendations for a global monitoring framework thatincluded NCD targets to be completed by the end of 2012; (2)development of a plan for an effective multisector partnershipby the end of 2012; (3) national NCD plans by 2013; and (4)a comprehensive review to evaluate progress, to take place in2014