Kolkata: The World Health Organisation's Southeast Asia Regional Office (SEARO) has called for heightened political will to tackle emerging threats of non-communicable diseases (NCD), microbial drug resistance and Ebola-like disease outbreaks in the region.

"NCDs (diabetes, cancer) are approaching like a juggernaut, threatening communities, health systems and economies... if we do not act now... over 60 million have died in India and this will cross a 100 million by 2030 according to estimates.