GLOBAL: People now enjoy longevity globally but… WHO

THE World Health Organisation has said people are now living longer globally than many years back.

The organisation, however, noted that this cheering development comes at the cost of managing one disability /disease or the other.

WHO made this known in its 2019 Global Health Estimates posted on its website.

WHO Global Health Estimate covers the years 2000 to 2019, prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the findings the global decline in deaths from communicable diseases, though they remain major challenge in low- and middle-income countries as deaths from tuberculosis, for instance, reduced by about 30 per cent.

Part of the report read, “The estimates further confirm the growing trend for longevity: in 2019, people were living more than six years longer than in 2000, with a global average of more than 73 years in 2019 compared to nearly 67 in 2000. But on average, only five of those additional years were lived in good health.

“Indeed, disability is on the rise. To a large extent, the diseases and health conditions that are causing the most deaths are those that are responsible for the greatest number of healthy life-years lost. Heart disease, diabetes, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were collectively responsible for nearly 100 million additional healthy life-years lost in 2019 compared to 2000.

“Injuries are another major cause of disability and death: there has been a significant rise in road traffic injuries in the African region since 2000, with an almost 50 per cent increase in both death and healthy life-years lost. Similar but slightly smaller increases (at around 40 per cent) were also observed for the Eastern Mediterranean region. Globally, deaths from road traffic injuries are 75 per cent male.

“In the Americas, drug use has emerged as a significant contributor to both disability and death. There was a nearly threefold increase in deaths from drug use disorders in the Americas between 2000 and 2019. This region is also the only one for which drug use disorder is a top 10 contributor to healthy life-years lost due to premature deaths and disability, while in all other regions, drug use does not make the top 25.”