A/RES/66/2 11. Take note with appreciation also of the outcomes of the regional multisectoral consultations, including the adoption of ministerial declarations, which were held by the World Health Organization in collaboration with Member States, with the support and active participation of regional commissions and other relevant United Nations agencies and entities, and served to provide inputs to the preparations for the high-level meeting in accordance with resolution 65/238; 12. Welcome the convening of the first Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Non-communicable Disease Control, which was organized by the Russian Federation and the World Health Organization and held in Moscow on 28 and 29 April 2011, and the adoption of the Moscow Declaration, 6 and recall resolution 64.11 of the World Health Assembly; 7 13. Recognize the leading role of the World Health Organization as the primary specialized agency for health, including its roles and functions with regard to health policy in accordance with its mandate, and reaffirm its leadership and coordination role in promoting and monitoring global action against non-communicable diseases in relation to the work of other relevant United Nations agencies, development banks and other regional and international organizations in addressing non-communicable diseases in a coordinated manner; A challenge of epidemic proportions and its socio-economic and developmental impacts 14. Note with profound concern that, according to the World Health Organization, in 2008, an estimated 36 million of the 57 million global deaths were due to noncommunicable diseases, principally cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, including about 9 million deaths before the age of 60, and that nearly 80 per cent of those deaths occurred in developing countries; 15. Note also with profound concern that non-communicable diseases are among the leading causes of preventable morbidity and of related disability; 16. Recognize further that communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies are currently the most common causes of death in Africa, and note with concern the growing double burden of disease, including in Africa, caused by the rapidly rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, which are projected to become the most common causes of death by 2030; 17. Note further that there is a range of other non-communicable diseases and conditions, for which the risk factors and the need for preventive measures, screening, treatment and care are linked with the four most prominent non-communicable diseases; 18. Recognize that mental and neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, are an important cause of morbidity and contribute to the global non-communicable disease burden, for which there is a need to provide equitable access to effective programmes and health-care interventions; 19. Recognize 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; _______________ 6 See A/65/859. See World Health Organization, Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly, Geneva, 16–24 May 2011, Resolutions and Decisions, Annexes (WHA64/2011/REC/1). 7 3