Sixty percent of all global deaths are now caused by non- communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and lung disease, according to a report by the U.N. Secretary-General’s office.

This represents 35 million deaths a year. The British medical journal the Lancet reported Monday that cases of diabetes, a disease that is debilitating, difficult to treat and associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, have doubled in the last three decades.

Although NCDs like diabetes tend to be associated with developed nations, the U.N. report also found the majority – 28.1 million or 80 percent – occur in low- to middle-income countries.

This trend has been relatively unnoticed but is now becoming a global epidemic. In the words of Dr. Cary Adams, CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control, we are “creating a public health emergency in slow motion”.

NCDs are wrongly labeled as diseases of prosperity, only affecting people in the developed world who can afford rich foods, alcoholic drinks and tobacco products.

While this certainly describes some of the cases, it isn’t the whole truth. Smoking rates, for example, are highest among men in lower- middle-income countries, and Africa has the highest rate of raised blood pressure in the world.

The crisis is set to grow further. The World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts that between 2006 and 2015, deaths related to these illnesses will increase worldwide by 17 percent.

The WHO says that eight million NCD deaths a year are premature and could be potentially prevented.

In recognition of the severity of the problem, the U.N. General Assembly has announced that it will convene a high-level meeting on NCDs in September.

Dr. John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said at a recent press briefing that the figure of 60 percent of all deaths is actually an underestimate because NCDs are “hidden, misunderstood and under-recorded, especially in the developing world.”

Future growth in such illnesses is associated with an expanding and aging population, tobacco and alcohol abuse, and increasingly inactive lifestyles.

Governments currently are not doing enough to prevent NCDs from occurring in the first place by promoting healthier lifestyles and taking further steps to stamp out smoking, experts say.

“Many call this personal choice but we have to wear a seatbelt or helmet and follow help and safety regulations at work,” Adams said. “These are just some examples of society ignoring personal choice to protect itself from itself.”

NCDs also don’t receive as much attention and resources as infectious diseases such as HIV. “Why is it so much more acceptable for a child to die of obesity than hunger and a woman die of cancer?” Seffrin asked. “Both should be equally unacceptable.”

“There are two reasons why Infectious diseases have overshadowed NCDs until recently,” Adams told IPS. “NCDs don’t create the same sense of urgency and hence are not noticed as much as infectious diseases. The second reason is that NCDs were not even mentioned in the global [Millennium] Development Goals. This has meant that more resources and time has gone into combating diseases such as AIDS and not NCDS.”

Many people think governments face a choice between health spending and economic prosperity, but the two go hand in hand.

Dr. David Bloom, a professor of Economics and Demography at Harvard University, said that if governments “care about economic development and poverty reduction, it would be irresponsible for them not to make efforts to reduce these diseases.”

For example, in 2010 alone, new global cancer cases cost more than 300 billion dollars. Bloom explained that “diverting resources to combating NCD levels should not be seen as a spending burden but as an investment that yields handsome returns through a healthier society.”

“Concern has not taken hold with economic policy makers who still see these diseases as a concern exclusively for the health sector,” he added. “This needs to be addressed because NCDs are getting more and more expensive in human and fiscal capital for the world’s economy.”

The U.N. meeting on NCDs takes place Sep. 19-20, and the hope is for a meaningful outcome document to tackle the high levels of illness across the globe.

“The whole of the U.N. will take strong action in September if they believe that NCDs are a vital issue,” Adams said.

However, he told IPS that he worried a strong agreement would not occur because “some developed countries see NCDs as a development issue and cannot see that within their own borders, thousands of people contract a NCD every day.”