New Medical Concerns Threaten Latin America's Emerging Middle Class
Posted: 12/07/2013 7:46 am
Rosario Perez
"LAC is now a region in transition. Stunting has decreased by 45 percent and diarrheal disease dropped to the twentieth cause of death. Meanwhile, non-communicable and chronic diseases traditionally associated with higher-income countries have skyrocketed. Rates of childhood obesity have dramatically increased and diabetes moved into the top five causes of mortality.
Chronic diseases account for 68 percent of mortality in LAC and lead to billions of dollars of losses in economic production. On top of that, experts predict that deaths from heart disease, diabetes, and stroke will triple in the next two decades. In addition,cervical cancer mortality rates are seven times greater in LAC than in North America, and breast cancer is the deadliest cancer for women in the region."
