A U.N. Summit Focused on Health

This week, for only the second time in history, the U.N. General Assembly is focusing high-level attention on a key issue in public health. Ten years ago the spotlight was on AIDS. This time around it’s on noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, such as heart attacks and strokes, cancers, diabetes and obesity, and chronic respiratory disease.

Taken together, NCDs account for over 63% of deaths in the world today; every year, they kill 9 million people under 60. The goal of the U.N. summit on NCDs is to bring together delegates, scientists, thought leaders, and policymakers to set a new international agenda on NCDs. Member nations have been asked to adopt a concise, action-oriented outcome document intended to shape global agendas to address and prevent these chronic illnesses for generations to come.

Mailman School faculty members have been participating in the summit in a variety of ways. In advance of the summit, the School’s Chronic Disease Initiative, led by Epidemiology faculty member Moise Desvarieux, created a position paper on the prevention and control of NCDs, which was submitted to the World Health Organization for distribution to the U.N. delegations.

The position paper notes that, on the pressing issue of NCDs, “public health schools have a unique obligation to be involved in order to help inform the debate, contribute to interventions and evaluations of impact, model various scenarios and costs—both incurred and averted, and provide a link for public-private partnerships.” The position paper also offers specific recommendations on the most important priorities for governments in addressing the growing challenge of noncommunicable diseases.

Other key activities for faculty members during the two-day Summit have been:

• Sept. 18:  Dr. Wafaa El Sadr, director of ICAP and professor of epidemiology, joins a panel at an event organized by the Global Health Council, Pfizer, Livestrong and other entities, entitled Tackling NCDs: How can Existing Platforms Be Leveraged? Participants will explore how health service platforms designed for maternal health and HIV/AIDS can be adapted to help combat the growing burden of NCDs, particularly in developing countries.
• Sept. 18: Dr. Richard Deckelbaum, professor of epidemiology, co-hosts a dinner for policymakers titled: Integrative Approaches to the Global "Double Burden": Under- and Over-nutrition and NCDs.
• Sept. 19: Dr. Richard Deckelbaum participates in one of the official UN Round Table discussions.
• Sept. 19: the School co-sponsors with the Columbia University World Leaders Forum a panel discussion with athlete and anti-cancer advocate Lance Armstrong, Harvard physician and global health advocate Paul Farmer, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Harvard oncologist Lawrence Shulman, and ICAP director Wafaa El-Sadr. The 4 pm event, taking place in Low Library, is titled: Delivering Hope: Preventing and Treating Noncommunicable Diseases in Developing Countries.
• Sept. 19: The School’s Global Health Initiative, together with the Columbia University Middle East Research Center, convenes a dinner for Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries from the Middle East. The focus is strategies to address the growing challenge of NCDs in the region, including means of strengthening national approaches to prevention. The evening provides the opportunity for Dean Linda Fried, Dr. El-Sadr, Dr. Desvarieux, and Dr. Deckelbaum to discuss these issues with high-level delegations from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Muscat, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. 
• Sept. 21: Dean Linda Fried speaks at an event, co-hosted by UNICEF and Johnson & Johnson, titled "Making Healthy Choices Easier With Effective Communication. The event brings together speakers from the private sector, the U.N. as well as academia.