Global health and chronic non-communicable conditions: Spina bifida care across a worldwide community.

“Blue marble health” was introduced in 2013 as a policy framework to illustrate trends in the geographic distribution of neglected tropical diseases affecting vulnerable populations that live not only in low-income countries but also in pockets of the populace in wealthier nations [1]. More recently, inquiry into evidence released by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the concepts of “blue marble health” extend beyond neglected tropical diseases to also include malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS [2], all known to cause shuntable hydrocephalus. Concurrently, from the Americas to Europe the prevalence estimates of neural tube defects (NTDs) vary widely even among upper-middle to high-income countries [3]. Though legislation mandating folic acid fortification of staple cereal grains has been introduced throughout many of these countries [4], divergent prevalence rates remain among their populations. Thus, we may wonder if this framework of “blue marble health”, which expounds a new global health model replacing the older concept that simply juxtaposed low-income versus high-income countries, also has a role in illustrating chronic non-communicable conditions such as spina bifida (SB). In this issue of the journal, from the foot of the Andes Mountains, Prado summarizes the efforts in NTD