Premature Deaths Held Preventable : Health: Many doomed to die in the 1990s ‘could be saved by shifting a small amount of resources to health care.’
If current global trends continue, an estimated 200 million people worldwide could die prematurely from preventable illnesses in the 1990s, according to a report on the state of world health released Sunday by the World Health Organization.
“Disease is the most destructive force in the world today,” Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, director general of the U.N. agency, said in a statement.
Many of the 40 million people who die annually from disease “could be saved by shifting a small amount of resources to health care,” said the report, which was prepared for the May 7 World Health Assembly. The meeting will bring together representatives from 166 WHO-member countries in an attempt to devise new global health strategies.
“Many of the world’s illnesses are preventable or treatable with inexpensive vaccines, antibiotics or oral rehydration therapy,” Nakajima said. “What is needed is to mobilize the political will to make this a healthier world.”
About 50 million people die each year from all causes, including disease, the health organization said. Of these, about 80% occur in developing countries.
An estimated 14.5 million children younger than 5 die annually in developing countries from disease and other causes, the report said. Of these, more than 8,000 children die every day from diseases that could have been prevented by immunization, and almost 11,000 die each day of dehydration caused by diarrhea, the report said. Further, an additional 8,000 die every day of pneumonia, the agency said.
“Much of the suffering can be alleviated,” the report said.
For example, it would cost about $2.5 billion a year to immunize all children and provide medication for dehydration and pneumonia, the organization said. This would save the lives of an estimated 7.5 million children annually, WHO said.
Changes in lifestyles could eliminate at least half of the 12 million deaths annually associated with cardiovascular disease, the report said. Noting that 3 million adults die from diseases associated with tobacco, the organization asserted that “the prevention of these tobacco-related deaths is the most simple of all.”
Nakajima said he hopes that “with the decrease in global military tensions, there may be more money to fight the worldwide war on disease,” adding, “We are looking for a health dividend.”
During any two-week period, “at least 1 billion people--or one out of every five on Earth--are diseased, in poor health, or malnourished,” the report said. These conditions include malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, anemia, hookworm and measles, WHO said.
Currently, WHO said, health care expenditures in the poorest countries average about $5 per person, compared with $460 in Western Europe and $1,900 in the United States.
The report said that in South and East Asia, an estimated 500 million people, or 40% of the population, suffer from malnutrition, respiratory and diarrheal diseases, dengue, measles and malaria.
In sub-Saharan Africa, many of the same diseases afflict about 30% of the population, WHO said. In South and Central America, the figure is about 25%, roughly the same percentage as in North Africa and the Middle East, the report said.
Despite these gloomy statistics, The U.N. agency said that the overall global health picture has improved over the decade.
Life expectancy has increased to a worldwide average of 61.5 years--73.4 years in developed countries and 59.7 years in developing countries--and there has been a rise in the immunization of children in developing countries, the report said.
WHO attributed the health improvement, in part, to a “general upswing” in the global economy and a steady rise in development assistance.
Deadly Diseases Many of the world’s 40 million deaths each year could be prevented. Following is a list of the diseases which cause the most deaths. 12 million Cardiovascular disease 5 million Diarrheal diseases 4.8 million Cancer 4.8 million Pneumonia 3 million Tubercluosis 2.7 million Chronic obstructive lung disease 1.5 million Measles 1-2 million Malaria 1-2 million Hepatitis B 775,000 Tetanus (neo-natal) 500,000 Pertussis (whooping cough) 500,000 Maternal mortality 200,000 AIDS virus 200,000 Schistosomiasis 40,000-110,000 Amebiasis 50,000-60,000 Hookworm 35,000 Rabies 25,000 Typhoid 25,000 Yellow fever (epidemic) 20,000 African typanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness) 20,000 Ascariais Source: World Health Organization, 1990
