Jon Klein, United States
I am a pediatrician and work with adolescents and with child and adult health services and systems. Many children and youth are living with NCDs, and prevention of the behaviors that increase the risk of future NCDs must start during childhood and adolescence. NCDs affect me at a personal level, too: I have asthma. My daughter has Crohn's disease. My wife survived a stroke. My mother has COPD and heart failure. My father died of lung cancer from having been a smoker. We are fortunate to have access to health care and medications to control these conditions, and allow us to live healthy, productive lives. As a professional, I have chosen to work as the Executive Director of NCD Child, to help ensure that children, youth and families are part of countries' plans for NCD prevention and treatment. The prevention agenda must recognize injury and early brain development, and the interrelationship between child survival and other goals with the NCDs. The NCD treatment agenda must recognize the need for community-based systems that address the needs of children and families, both for specific conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but also for children with a wide range of other special health care needs. Every child has a right to the care and support they and their family need to survive and thrive, and every country's health care delivery system must recognize the opportunities to address the prevention and treatment of NCDs for children and youth.