Non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases, now outnumber infectious diseases and are the leading killers worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today in a statement.  

A new report released by the WHO and cited by Lusa news agency, contains data from 194 countries on non-communicable diseases and their risk factors: smoking, unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol, lack of physical activity, and air pollution.

"Eliminating these factors could prevent or delay significant health problems and many premature deaths" from these diseases, the WHO experts quoted by the agency said.

For the WHO, which launched the initiative during the UN General Assembly, this is one of the greatest health and development challenges of the century.

Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory conditions, along with mental health, cause nearly three-quarters of deaths worldwide and kill 41 million people each year.

The report "Invisible Figures: the true extent of non-communicable diseases and what to do about them" gives visibility to these pathologies and reminds us of "the true scale" of this threat and of the risk factors, says the WHO in a statement.

"It also shows the cost-effectiveness of globally applicable cost-effective interventions that can change these numbers and save lives and money," the organization advances.

The portal contains the most recent data for each country, risk factors, and policy adoption: "It makes patterns and trends in countries visible and allows for comparison between countries or within geographic regions."

"According to the WHO, every two seconds, a person under the age of 70 dies from a non-communicable disease and 86% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

"This major change in public health in recent decades has gone largely unnoticed," the organization considers.

"The report and portal come at a critical time for public health: by 2022, only a handful of countries were on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing early deaths from non-communicable diseases by one-third by 2030," WHO maintains.

Experts claim that prevention and treatment is an "excellent investment opportunity that will have numerous impacts on economic growth, far outweighing the money spent."