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The Mexico Declaration on Circulatory Health was recently signed by leading global organizations at the World Congress of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Health 2016. It is seen as a fi rm commitment to tackle cardiovascular disease, recognizing that global action, national plans and a common vision are needed to achieve this.

“It is valuable to build alliances with societies and organizations that highlight the effect of non-communicable diseases and together raise awareness about prevention,” says ISN President Adeera Levin who led the ISN Global Kidney Summit, which took place in July in Vancouver.

She adds: “It is all the more important to emphasize the link between cardiovascular disease and the kidney. Its impact across the world should not be underestimated.”

Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death around the world. 80% of them occur in low- to middle-income countries. Non-communicable diseases (NCD) in particular, account for about 77% of total adult deaths in Mexico, where 22.8% of people have hypertension, which can increase risk of heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease or stroke.

In addition to this, ISN efforts to better position kidney disease on the global health agenda paid off as kidney disease was mentioned in the resolution stemming from the United Nations (UN) High Level Meeting on NCDs.

The document recognizes that: “renal, oral and eye diseases pose a major health burden for many countries and that these diseases share common risk factors and can benefit from common responses to non-communicable diseases…” This is the first time the importance of kidney disease has been acknowledged at UN level and in the World Health Organization’s plans to address the growing burden of NCDs.