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

Worldwide, the aging population, globalization, rapid, and population growth have fundamentally disease patterns. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), of which cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for half, have overtaken communicable diseases as the’s major disease burden. CVD remains the No. 1 global of death, accounting for 17. 3 million deaths per year, a that is expected to grow to 23. 6 million by 2030. , the populations affected are those in low- and-income countries, where 80% of these deaths occur, at younger ages than in higher-income countries, and the human and financial resources to address them are limited. 1 epidemiological transition occurring is exacerbated by lack of vital investment in sustainable health policies to and curtail the risk factors associated with CVD and. Recognizing the profound mismatch between the need investment in the prevention and control of CVD at the and national level and the actual resources allocated, international CVD community, under the umbrella of the Heart Federation, joined the NCD community to call a United Nations (UN) High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable, held in September 2011. At this, heads of state signed a Political Declaration that governments to the development of 4 specific to address the NCD burden in a specific timeline: (1) Recommendations for a global monitoring framework that NCD targets to be completed by the end of 2012; (2) of a plan for an effective multisector partnership the end of 2012; (3) national NCD plans by 2013; and (4) comprehensive review to evaluate progress, to take place in2014.