Dr. Douglas Bettcher, WHO's director for the Tobacco Free Initiative, said that the world's top killer, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), claims 36 million lives a year - nearly 100,000 people a day. Deaths from chronic diseases will continue to climb even faster, amounting to 52 million deaths by 2030, he warned.

As world leaders on September 19 kicked off a two-day high-level meeting to enact a roadmap to attack diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart and lung diseases, it is hoped that the summit on NCDs, which is being called a "once in a generation opportunity," moves to become a "worldwide priority," Bettcher said.

Marking the second time in its history that the United Nations General Assembly has ever put a global disease on the table, health experts and world leaders from 193 nations met to avert what the UN has declared a "public health emergency in slow motion”.

The last time the UN looked at a health issue under the global microscope on such a high-level was almost a decade ago. It took up the fight against HIV/AIDS in a summit which was a game changer in the epidemic, transforming the face of prevention and treatment as it spurred an international flow of funding and commitments.

Last week, WHO released a report singling out cancer as the sole killer of 7.6 million people every year - more than the combined deaths of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.