According to the UN agency, between 2019 and 2021 – the first years of the global health emergency – life expectancy worldwide fell 1.8 years to 71.4 years, which is the 2012 level.
Responding to the findings, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the fragility of advances in global health when faced with unprecedented emergencies such as the pandemic, which caused more than seven million confirmed deaths.
“In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy,” Tedros said. “That is why the new Pandemic Agreement is so important: not only to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries.”
Regional differences
Regionally, the The Americas and Southeast Asia felt the greatest impact. of the coronavirus, with a decreasing life expectancy about three years.
Unlike, Western Pacific countries were minimally affected during the first two years of the pandemic, with only small losses in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy.
The WHO World Health Statistics 2024 report confirmed that COVID-19 was the third cause of death worldwide in 2020 and the second highest a year later.
The coronavirus was also the leading cause of mortality in the Americas for 2020 and 2021.
Staff at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens arrive with a new patient during the COVID-19 outbreak in New York. (archive)
Non-communicable diseases
Before the pandemic, non-communicable diseases remained the leading cause of death, the UN health agency said, accounting for 74 percent of all deaths in 2019.
During the pandemic, chronic diseases such as heart disease and stroke, cancer and dementia were behind 78 percent of non-COVID deaths.
Malnutrition in children is “striking”
Other major causes of truncated lives are malnutrition, malnutrition, overweight and obesity. In 2022, more than one billion people aged five and older were living with obesity, while more than 500 million were underweight..
“Malnutrition in children was also striking,” the WHO report says, “with 148 million children under five affected by stunting – too short for their age -, 45 million suffering from wasting – too thin for their tall – and 37 million overweight.
Inequity in health care
The WHO World Health Statistics report also highlighted the challenges faced by people with disabilities, refugees and migrants.
In 2021, around 1.3 billion people, or 16 percent of the world's population, had a disability. “This group is disproportionately affected by health inequalities resulting from avoidable, unjust and unjust conditions,” the UN health agency insisted.
A COVID-19 testing site in South Korea.
Similar problems of access to medical help exist for refugees and migrants, the WHO said, after finding that only half of the dozens of countries surveyed between 2018 and 2021 provided them with publicly funded health care at the same level as other citizens. “This highlights the urgent need for health systems to adapt and address persistent inequalities and the changing demographic needs of global populations,” the WHO said.
Despite the multiple setbacks in public health caused by COVID-19, the UN health agency insisted that progress has been made to achieve better health for all, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). . These include the fact that since 2018, 1.5 billion more people have achieved better health and well-being around the world, and 585 million more people today have access to universal health coverage.
Pandemic Treaty Talks
In a bid to prevent a future pandemic, the WHO is leading highly complex discussions with UN Member States to draft and negotiate a convention that agrees on the collective measures that will be needed by governments around the world.
The goal is to present the outcome of these negotiations at the next meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva next week, where the 194 WHO Member States are scheduled to adopt the international agreement.
The participation of the countries in the agreement would be voluntary – contrary to online disinformation campaigns falsely claiming the deal would mean giving up sovereignty – and in the interests of the citizens of those countries and others, provide more effective pandemic preparedness and response.
According to the WHO, negotiations on a future agreement revolve around the need to ensure equitable access to the tools necessary to prevent pandemics (vaccines, protective equipment, information and expertise) and universal access to healthcare for all.
