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EMBARGO: 1030 am EST / 330 pm GMT, Mon. Nov. 16, 2009

Contacts: Mr. Terry Collins, +1-416-538-8712; +1-416-878-8712; tc@tca.tc  

POWERFUL WORLD ALLIANCE OF HEALTH RESEARCHERS ANNOUNCES LANDMARK PACT ON PRIORITIES IN FIGHT AGAINST HUMANITY'S MOST FATAL DISEASES

Agencies managing 80 percent of global public health research funding set first priorities for common, concerted efforts on heart and lung diseases, other “Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases”

An alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide today announced their first targets for concerted action in the fight against “chronic non-communicable diseases” (CNCDs).

Lowering hypertension (high blood pressure), and reducing tobacco use and the indoor pollution caused by crude cooking stoves in developing countries -- which together contribute to about 1 in 5 deaths each year -- were chosen as initial priorities for the unprecedented coordinated research program under the recently-formed Global Alliance for Chronic Disease. The priorities were set earlier this month in New Delhi, India, at the Alliance’s inaugural scientific summit.

Alliance members also agreed at their board meeting in New Delhi to fund a program to identify the world’s “Grand Challenges in Mental Health” under the leadership of the US National Institute of Mental Health, in association with Alliance Board Chair Abdallah Daar and Vikram Patel, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Sangath in Goa, India.

Though not traditionally listed among chronic non-communicable diseases, the Alliance expanded its mandate to include mental illnesses because of their link to CNCDs and the rising toll they take globally, including 1 million suicides annually, eating disorders and alcoholism leading to death by illness and injury.

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