The coronavirus pandemic is a setback to progress made toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the World Health Organization warned in an annual statistics report out Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2020) The coronavirus pandemic is a setback to progress made toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the World Health Organization warned in an annual statistics report out Wednesday.
"The good news is that people around the world are living longer and healthier lives. The bad news is the rate of progress is too slow to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and will be further thrown off track by COVID-19," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying.
The 2020 World Health Statistics, an annual check-up on the world's health, estimated that a billion people worldwide, or almost 13 percent of the global population, will be spending at least 10 percent of their household budgets on health this year, most of them in lower middle-income nations.
"The message from this report is clear: as the world battles the most serious pandemic in 100 years, just a decade away from the SDG deadline, we must act together to strengthen Primary health care and focus on the most vulnerable among us in order to eliminate the gross inequalities," WHO's Assistant Director General Samira Asma said.
The UN health agency estimated that life expectancy in low-income countries rose by 11 years between 2000 and 2016 thanks to improved access to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis treatments and a drastic decrease in infant mortality.
At the same time, health service coverage remains low in poorer countries. Between one-third and one-half of the global population was able to obtain essential services in 2017. Immunization has barely increased in recent years, raising fears that malaria gains may be reversed.
Shortage of services has complicated the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart and lung diseases and stroke. The WHO estimates that in 2016 these diseases accounted for 70 percent of all deaths worldwide, with 85 percent of cases occurring in low and middle-income countries.
"The pandemic highlights the urgent need for all countries to invest in strong health systems and primary health care, as the best defense against outbreaks like COVID-19... Health systems and health security are two sides of the same coin," Tedros said.
