The Covid-19 pandemic caused the loss of almost 337 million years of life worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated this Friday, warning of the stagnation of various health indicators in recent years.
“During 2020 and 2021, covid-19 resulted in a staggering 336.8 million years of life lost worldwide. That equates to an average of 22 years of life lost for each excess death, prompting the abrupt and tragic loss of millions of people,” the organization said.
The WHO has published the annual statistics report updating the impact of the pandemic on global health, demonstrating a “decline” in the progress made before COVID-19 on the global development goals (SDGs).
WHO excess mortality estimates indicate that the actual number of deaths directly or indirectly associated with the pandemic between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 was approximately 14.9 million worldwide.
This figure represents 9.5 million more deaths than the 5.4 million initially reported during that period, the Geneva-based organization said.
According to the most recent data from the WHO, since the start of the pandemic until Wednesday, more than 766 million cases of infection with the virus that causes Covid-19 have been confirmed and around 6.9 million have been registered. of deaths.
The report also warns that the proportion of deaths caused annually by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer and diabetes, “has been steadily growing and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of all lives lost every year. “.
If this trend continues, WHO data estimates that these diseases “will be responsible for about 86% of the 90 million deaths per year by mid-century,” representing about 77 million deaths.
The document also adds that the most recent trends show “signs of slowdown” in the annual reduction targets for several health indicators, such as the global maternal mortality ratio, which needs to decline by 11.6% per year until 2030 to meet the targets. SDGs. aim.
“Similarly, the net reduction in tuberculosis incidence from 2015 to 2021 was only one-fifth of the way to the 2025 milestone,” defined in the WHO’s disease eradication strategy.
Alcohol consumption worldwide fell slightly between 2010 and 2019, with men still consuming about three times more than women, the report says, showing more optimistic data on tobacco.
“Tobacco use has declined more sharply: around 22% of the world’s population aged 15 and over used tobacco in 2020, up from almost 33% in 2000,” the organization says.
The WHO also estimates that the number of adults aged 30 to 79 years with hypertension has nearly doubled to 1.28 billion between 1990 and 2019, mainly due to population growth and aging.
“Safely managed drinking water services were accessible to around three-quarters (74%) of the world’s population in 2020. However, this translated into two billion people who still do not have access” to this resource safely, says the document.
“Achieving universal access to safely managed basic water, sanitation and hygiene services by 2030 will require quadrupling the current rates of progress” in this area, according to the WHO, which qualifies as “alarming” the levels of obesity, which have on the rise “with no immediate signs of reversal.”
Despite the stagnation of some indicators, people continue to live more and more years in good health.
Global life expectancy at birth increased from 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.3 years in 2019 and healthy life expectancy increased from 58.3 years to 63.7 years, says the WHO, warning, however, that “health inequalities continue to have a disproportionate impact on life and life.” health in contexts with fewer resources”.
Source: TSF
