CEO Perspective

Statement from José Luis Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vital Strategies, on the U.S. government’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization (WHO).

To date, we’ve proven that progress is possible anywhere in the world through enacting good legislation, strengthening data systems, designing roads with people as the priority, and pairing strong media campaigns with enforcement.

Cities taking on opioid crisis, poor nutrition, tobacco use and other leading causes of premature death and disease through the Partnership for Healthy Cities expansion.

The drivers of NCDs are embedded in politics and the economy and the environments people live in. NCDs are essentially a failure of effective public policy.

This year, 1.35 million people will die as a result of road traffic crashes – the leading cause of death for children and adults aged 5-29 years. Each death is a preventable tragedy.

"While the decline in smoking is good news, the rapid uptake of e-cigarettes in the United States and globally is of urgent concern."

No single policy can reduce diabetes, but a comprehensive set of strong, integrated health policies that make the healthy choice the easy choice could make a difference.

Increasingly, we see cities rising to societies’ biggest challenges—from climate change and road safety, to obesity and tobacco use. They are engines of change, able to move quickly to implement life-changing policies that affect great numbers of people.

Undernourishment, hidden hunger and overweight and obesity have lifelong impacts on children’s survival, physical growth and development, with overweight and obesity increasing their risk of suffering from diseases such as heart disease and diabetes later in life.