Ruleta rusa

THE biggest global health challenges are not necessarily those that make the biggest headlines. Of the 56m people who died in 2012, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola claimed 12.8m lives, but non-communicable diseases (NCDs) killed three times as many. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes together account for over 80% of the 38m deaths from NCDs; 16m of these people die prematurely (under the age of 70). In 2011 the World Health Assembly adopted targets to reduce premature mortality by 25% by 2025. Progress is being made, according to the World Health Organisation’s recent status report. In 2012, a 30-year-old had a 19% chance of dying from one of the four main NCDs before the age of 70 compared with a 23% chance in 2000. But the picture varies considerably across the world. Three-quarters of all people who die from NCDs, and 80% of those who die prematurely, live in the developing world. An inhabitant of Turkmenistan has a 41% chance of dying early; other former Soviet states offer similarly poor odds. A Swiss citizen has a mere 9% chance.

Non-communicable diseases.