Expanding Priorities — Confronting Chronic Disease in Countries with Low Income

In a ceremony held at the New York Public Library on June 26, 2006, Microsoft founder and global health philanthropist Bill Gates expressed his belief that “there is no reason we can't cure the top 20 diseases.”1 To achieve this ambitious objective, however, international health organizations will need to greatly expand their efforts, especially in low-income countries, to prevent and treat noncommunicable chronic diseases.Although there are many ways to classify diseases and to evaluate the burden of disease, it is clear that by any measure, several noncommunicable chronic diseases have a place in the global top 20. For example, . . .