On 25 April, World Malaria Day was an opportunity for the United Nations and global health organizations around the world to come together in their efforts to control the disease.

However, organizations are recognizing the need to analyze the relationship between communicable and non-communicable diseases and also the relationship between diseases like malaria and issues of development.

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are diseases that are not contagious and depend mostly on a person's lifestyle choices, environment, or genetics. NCDs include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. By contrast, communicable diseases are infectious diseases resulting from bacteria, virus, parasites or pathogens. These diseases include respiratory illness, childhood disease, diarrheal infection, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis.

In the past decade, the overwhelming number of communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa has been the priority for aid organizations. However, recent findings suggest that the decline in communicable diseases have led to an increase in non-communicable diseases. While it is uncertain whether there is a definite correlation, health organizations are speculating that the two are related.

In the 2008 World Health Statistics, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that NCDs account for 60 percent of the world's deaths, the majority of them--80 percent--occurring in developing countries. Furthermore, WHO projected that NCDs will cause over three quarters of the world's deaths by 2030. In addition, malaria outbreaks have shown progress and HIV/AIDS prevalence has decreased steadily. Data indicates that HIV reached its peak at 6 percent around 2000 and fell to 5 percent by 2007.

At a press briefing on 14 April, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), WHO, and the World Bank discussed how these findings reveal a "dual burden" between NCDs and communicable diseases.

While non-communicable diseases have not been acknowledged by health organizations as the chief concern in Sub-Saharan Africa, the growing number of cases has caused health officials to address the issue and attempt to find the root cause of this problem. In the past, all disease in Africa was correlated to poverty where people generally died at a young age. Now, the aging population has increased also the likelihood that people will develop a NCD.

Eduard R. Bos, lead Population Specialist of the World Bank told MediaGlobal, "There will remain pockets of poverty all over Africa where communicable diseases will remain significant issues in the coming decade. At the same time, in urban areas and areas that are doing better economically, the NCD burden will also start to increase. What will then occur then is what WHO and everybody else calls now the dual burden of disease."

Organizations also highlighted the impact of urban trends on global health, suggesting that poverty as well as urbanization, will have a significant impact on the ability for people to seek treatment.

Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division of DESA told MediaGlobal, "Urbanization is going to play a very important role in determining the impacts of communicable and non-communicable disease. People suffering from communicable diseases are people living in rural areas and urban slums who do not have access to health facilities and good sanitation."

While the focus recently has been on the prevention and treatment of malaria, several organizations are recognizing the complexity of the relationship between global health and development. Malaria is an important issue for the developing world but in order to understand the nature of the problem, malaria must also be situated in relation to other diseases and social problems. It is important to be aware of global trends so that health organizations can be prepared for the future.

Zlotnik told MediaGlobal, "One thing to emphasize is the relationship between the development process and disease. Usually one thinks that the poor contract the disease because of lack of services and sanitation but once they get the disease they also have a great difficulty getting out of poverty because of the debilitating nature of the disease."