It is with interest and pleasure that I see notices of meetings and symposia, and articles, devoted to the theme Noncommunicable disease. I still live in the economic and geographical ‘South’ but the concern arises from the continued use of terminology that dulls the senses to the urgency of the problems involved. Since I wrote the letter (reference at end) the epidemic of the so called ‘non’ communicable disease has increased greatly; obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, accidental trauma, road deaths etc, and there is still less research and action about breaking the methods of spread than there is about the illnesses
