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For the purpose of this article, Asia refers to WHO's combined South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions and thus includes Australia and New Zealand. Asia has the highest number of tobacco users and is the prime target of transnational tobacco companies. The future of global tobacco control rests in this region and the challenges are clear. China, India, and Indonesia are key markets and Asia is a frontrunner in tobacco control measures, such as plain packaging of cigarettes. Some countries in Asia have a long history of tobacco control activities beginning in the 1970s, and WHO's Western Pacific Region is still the only region where all countries have ratified WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. We reviewed the history, research, epidemiology, tobacco control action, obstacles, and potential responses and solutions to the tobacco epidemic in this region. Levels of development, systems of government, and population size are very different between countries, with population size ranging from 1500 to 1·3 billion, but similarities exist in aspects of the tobacco epidemic, harms caused, obstacles faced, and tobacco control actions needed., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in people with diabetes in South Asia. The CARRS Translation Trial tests the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of a clinic-based multi-component CVD risk reduction intervention among people with diabetes in India and Pakistan., Methods: We randomly assigned 1146 adults with diabetes recruited from 10 urban clinic sites, to receive usual care by physicians or to receive an integrated multi-component CVD risk reduction intervention. The intervention involves electronic health record management, decision-support prompts to the healthcare team, and the support of a care coordinator to actively facilitate patient and provider adherence to evidence-based guidelines. The primary outcome is a composite of multiple CVD risk factor control (blood glucose and either blood pressure or cholesterol, or all three). Other outcomes include control of the individual CVD risk factors, process and patient-centered measures, cost-effectiveness, and acceptability/feasibility., Conclusion: The CARRS Translation Trial tests a low-cost diabetes care delivery model in urban South Asia to achieve comprehensive cardio-metabolic disease case-management of high-risk patients (clinicaltrials.gov number: NCT01212328)., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)