Good News or Bad News: Africa COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant loss of life throughout the world, threatening the recent health advances and progress towards international development goals highlighted by World Health Statistics 2020 (WHO).

“The good news is that the world lives longer and healthier. The bad news is that progress is too slow for Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19 will be further ignored,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. This pandemic illustrates the urgent need for investments by all countries in strong health systems and primary health, as the strongest protection against outbreaks such as COVID-19 and many other health threats faced every day by people worldwide. Two faces of the same coin are health services and health protection.

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WHO’s World Health Statistics: an annual check-up on the world’s health. Progress reports on key health and health service indicators that reveal important lessons in progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and gaps to be addressed. Life expectancy has increased and balanced lifespan is unequal. Low-income countries have shown the greatest gains, with an increase in the life expectancy 21% or 11 years from 2000 to 2016 (as compared to a 4% or 3 years increase in higher-income countries).

Improved access to preventive and care facilities, malaria, tuberculosis and other neglected tropical diseases, such as guinea worm, were one of the driving forces behind development in lower-income countries. Another was better maternal and child health care, leading to a halving from 2000 to 2018 in infant mortality.

However, development has declined in a variety of fields. In recent years, immunization coverage has only just increased, and concerns that malaria advances may be reversed are expressed. And overall services are lacking within the health system and beyond for preventing and dealing with diseases that are not transmitted (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, heart and lung diseases and strokes. In 2016, 70 per cent of all deaths worldwide were attributed to NCDs, the majority in low and middle-income countries (85 per cent).

This unequal growth typically represents gaps in access to good health services. The world population was only able to access basic health services in 2017 between 1/3 and 1⁄2 of the population. Service provision remains far below that in wealthier nations, as are healthcare densities, in low and middle-income nations. There are less than 10 physicians per 10 000 population in more than 40% of all countries. More than 55% of countries have fewer than 40 nurses per 10 000 people.

Another big problem for many is the inability to access medical treatment. On current trends, WHO estimates that approximately 1 billion people will spend at least 10% of their household budgets in healthcare this year, 2020 (almost 13% of the global population). Most of these people live in countries with low-medium income. Over 55% of the global population was estimated to lack access to safe sanitation services in 2017 and more than a quarter (29%) were deprived of safe drinking water. During the same year, two in five households worldwide (40%) had no necessary washing facilities in their homes with soap and water.

World Health Statistics also emphasizes the need for stronger data and information systems for health. Failure to collect and use accurate health statistics in a timely and comparable way undermines the ability of low-income countries to understand population-based health trends, develop appropriate policies, allocate resources and prioritize interventions. In almost one-fifth of the countries, more than half of the key indicators do not have any recent primary or direct underlying data, which is another major problem for countries to prepare for the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, prevent it and respond to it. The WHO thus helps countries to strengthen monitoring and data and health information systems in order to measure their status and to manage improvements.

Data Source: WHO