Introduction:

Eight million lives or more could be saved between now and 2030 if the planet’s poorest countries spent a little over $1 dollar a day per person to combat chronic diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Announcing the findings of new research, WHO’s Dr. Melanie Bertram said that these nations stood to gain $350 billion if they scaled up prevention measures and treatment of common killers including heart disease and cancer.

This information is important because it is the first time that the economic rewards of such an investment have been calculated and made available to national health authorities so that they can drum up the funding they need, Dr. Bertram added.

Here’s what she said to Daniel Johnson in Geneva.