London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The world is facing an onslaught of non-communicable diseases, with funding issues adding to the challenge, according to the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Professor Peter Piot said the impact of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health problems needs to be taken more seriously in the international fight to save lives.

Thirty years on from the discovery of Aids, he also spoke of the importance of long-term strategies to deal with HIV.

In an interview with Global Health TV, Professor Piot praised the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for helping to save "millions of lives" and said institutions such as the global fund should make good use of international development money.

"It's essential that we make good use of every penny of international development," he said. "It's after all about the survival of people. The Global Fund has saved millions of lives. The better we can do with existing funding the better also we will able to say development funding is a good investment."

Criticising the focus of attention on the Fund over alleged misuse of money, he highlighted the agency's transparency and steps it had taken to deal with the allegations.

Asked about issues on the global health agenda for 2011, Professor Piot said: "One is I that I am very concerned about funding for global health and for health in lower and middle income countries, with the financial crisis in the West but not in Asia so there are countries that can pay for it.

"Secondly, there is a real onslaught of non-communicable diseases happening in the world - diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health problems - and these are not being taken seriously and not being addressed. And so it's really great news that in September there will be a high level session of the UN General Assembly to bring that issue at the top political level.

"The third issue is that it's 30 years since the discovery of Aids in 1981. That's a moment I think to take a cold and hard look to look and see what have we achieved and also realising we are going to have to live with HIV for a long time and we need to resolutely move into long-term strategies there."