Stroke and the noncommunicable diseases: A global burden in need of global advocacy

Catalyzed by advocacy in the early period of the global AIDS crisis, the past decades have witnessed a revolution in global health funding, programs, and outcomes. In 2011, global HIV/AIDS programs received $7.7 billion of development assistance, amounting to 25% of total global health funding. In comparison, all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) combined received only $377 million or 1.2% of global health funding, 20-fold less than HIV/AIDS funding.1 Taken together, NCDs cause an estimated 66% of yearly global mortality.2 The percentage of estimated total global mortality due to stroke (11.3%), a single NCD, exceeds that of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined (7.2%) by more than 50%.2 Even limiting the percentage of the total global burden of mortality due to stroke only to that incurred by low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) still yields a figure (8%) that exceeds the percentage of combined global mortality due to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria together received 35 times more funding than all NCDs combined in 2011.1