Global Health Leaders Convene at the UN General Assembly in NYC to Address the Intersection of Infectious and Non-Communicable Diseases

Weill Cornell Medicine’s Center for Global Health, GHESKIO (Haiti), the Mérieux Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and New York University co-hosted an event on September 22nd coinciding with the UN General Assembly, focused on the intersection of infectious and non-communicable diseases. Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director of PAHO, delivered the keynote address, and emphasized the urgent need for integrated health strategies to address both infectious agents and chronic conditions that increasingly affect the same populations. The program featured two panel discussions:

 The first, chaired by Andrew Jack of the Financial Times, discussed viral infections and cancer (HPV and cervical cancer: Hepatitis B virus and liver cancer). The second panel was chaired by Dr. Jean-William Pape, Howard and Carol Holtzmann Professor of Clinical Medicine, focused on the interplay between cardiovascular and infectious diseases. The panelists examined how the syndemics of non-communicable and CVD are fueled by social and structural inequalities that have led to the increased burden of disease in vulnerable populations.

More than 120 attendees joined the event, including representatives from UN agencies, Ministries of Health, foundations, NGOs, universities, and individuals with lived experience of chronic conditions.

Panelists included: 

• Dr. Su Wang, Senior Advisor for Global Health, Hepatitis B Foundation
• Ulrika Årehed Kågström, President, Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
• Prof. Helen Rees, Executive Director, Wits RHI

• Dr. Tom Frieden, Founder and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives
• Dr. Robert Sebbag, Doctor of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, PiIé Salpétrière Hospital; Vice President, Mérieux Foundation Board of Directors
• Dr. Margaret McNairy, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Center of Global Health, Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director, Pan American Health Organization