CHRONIC diseases accounted for 35m of the world's 58m deaths in 2005, with heart disease alone killing 17.5m people. By contrast, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria together claimed 5.1m lives. Chronic, non-communicable illnesses are often considered rich-world maladies, the result of a Western lifestyle of high-fat diets and too little exercise. But people in poorer countries are increasingly dying from chronic diseases. Only a fifth of deaths attributable to “illnesses of affluence” were actually in the most affluent nations. Three-quarters happened in poor or lower-middle income countries.

AFP