Chronic diseases and calls to action

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Abstract
Hold the front page! ‘Chronic diseases, principally cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, are leading causes of death and disability but are grossly neglected on the global-health agenda’ announced the Lancet on 8 December 2007.1 This was true 2 years ago in 2005 when the Lancet highlighted the general neglect of chronic diseases in the face of Millennium Development Goals resolutely focused on child and maternal survival.2, 3 Indeed chronic diseases have topped infectious diseases in the global death league since the first report from the global burden of disease project in 1990.4