Poor countries are being more burdened by non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular and constant respiratory illnesses, diabetes and cancer, as compared to the richer economies. According to the United Nations health experts, it must be tackled as a development issue.

Gauden Galea , UN World Health Organization (WHO) Coordinator of Health Promotion said, "It's not like we have to wait for these countries to develop their economy, then start to suffer from non-communicable diseases. We are talking about countries and populations that are already dying at much higher rates and much earlier than people do in the richer economies".

Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory illness are the kind of chronic diseases which are responsible for 60% of the world's deaths, revealed by Dr. Galea. However, 80% of the deaths are happening in the poorest countries.

The global development initiatives continue to ignore non-communicable diseases. The Governments must identify the social determinants and behavioral issues including smoking, unhealthy diets, and alcohol. Dr. Galea emphasized that Government must address these health hazards and provide these services to the deprived people.

About 35 million deaths occurred annually across the globe due to non-communicable diseases and around 28.1 million belonged to low and middle-income countries.