The rise of non-communicable diseases in India

(GRANT of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting)

Chronic Diseases (non-communicable diseases, NCDs) cause more than 63 percent of deaths in the world. 90 percent of those people dying prematurely from NCDs come from developing countries in Asia and Africa. In India NCDs are responsible for two-thirds of the total burden of disease.

Scope of the research:

The study was done as a result of the global awareness about the shift in worldwide disease patterns. Renowned speakers drew attention to this shift during the World Health Summit 2011, one of the world’s most strategic forums for global health, held once a year in Berlin under the patronage of Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker. Only a few years ago, there was hardly any information available about the “double burden” India is facing.


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