Richard Smith: The moment is coming for chronic disease

Richard Smith: The moment is coming for chronic disease -WHY IS APRIL RESPONSE NOT PUBLISHED?
26 Nov, 10 | by BMJ Group

FROM RICHARD SMITH'S BLOG

After years in obscurity, those of us concerned about chronic disease are about to have our moment in the spotlight—at the United Nations High Level Meeting in New York next September. The last comparable meeting was on AIDS in 2001 and led to the Global Fund. Next year’s meeting is described as a “once in a life time opportunity,” but it’s touch and go whether we can seize the opportunity or whether we will blow it.
I wondered on this question as I attended a World Economic Forum meeting in New York on preparing for the meeting. The World Economic Forum is not just that grand meeting in Davos each January but also an organisation of private companies, mostly big multinationals, that works on all sorts of issues throughout the year. The forum has decided that chronic disease is the second major threat to the global economy — and so it’s health section is concentrating on chronic disease rather than the usual AIDS, TB, malaria, and maternal and child health.