telemedicine during Covid

Pneumonia In 2019, pneumonia and other lower respiratory infections were the deadliest group of communicable diseases and together ranked as the fourth leading cause of death. However, compared to 2000, lower respiratory infections were claiming fewer lives than in the past, with the global number of deaths decreasing by nearly half a million.

HIV/AIDS This reduction is in line with a general global decline in the percentage of deaths caused by communicable diseases. For example, HIV/AIDS dropped from the 8th leading cause of death in 2000 to the 19th in 2019, reflecting the success of efforts to prevent infection, test for the virus and treat the disease over the last two decades. While it remains the fourth leading cause of death in Africa, the number of deaths has dropped by more than half, falling from over 1 million in 2000 to 435,000 in 2019 in Africa.

Tuberculosis Tuberculosis is also no longer in the global top ten, falling from 7th place in 2000 to 13th in 2019, with a 30% reduction in global deaths. Yet, it remains among the top ten causes of deaths in the African and SouthEast Asian regions, where it is the 8th and 5th leading cause respectively. Africa saw an increase in tuberculosis mortality after 2000, though this has started to decline in the last few years.

The new estimates also emphasize the toll that communicable diseases still take in lowincome countries: six of the top ten causes of death in low-income countries are still communicable diseases, including malaria (6th), tuberculosis (8th) and HIV/AIDS (9th). Meanwhile, in recent years, WHO reports highlight an overall concerning slow-down or plateauing of progress against infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Longevity The estimates further confirm the growing

The leading causes of death in Middle East

The following graphs show the top 10 leading causes of death for all ages and both sexes in select countries in the Middle East for the years 2000 and 2019 to indicate the changes in the leading causes of mortality over the past two decades. Data supplied by the WHO Global Health Observatory.

Egypt, 2000 Egypt, 2019

UAE, 2000 UAE, 2019

Qatar, 2000

KSA, 2000

Oman, 2000

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. Disability 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

Qatar, 2019 KSA, 2019

Oman, 2019

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% increase in both death and healthy life-years lost. Similar but slightly smaller increases (at around 40%) were also observed for the Eastern Mediterranean region. Globally, deaths from road traffic injuries are 75% male. Drug use in the Americas 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.

Data sources WHO’s Global Health Estimates

Yemen, 2000

Iran, 2000

Lebanon, 2000

present comprehensive, comparable and transparent time-series data for population health, including life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, mortality and morbidity, and burden of disease at global, regional and country levels disaggregated by age, sex and cause, from 2000 onwards.

“These estimates are produced using data from the best available sources from countries and the international community,” said Dr Bochen Cao, the technical lead for WHO’s Global Health Estimates. “They are based on robust scientific methods for the processing, synthesis and analysis of data.

Yemen, 2019

Iran, 2019

Lebanon, 2019

These updated estimates also benefited from the valuable contributions of WHO’s Member States through active country consultation and dialogue.”

The availability of services to prevent, diagnose and treat disease is key to reducing death and disability, influencing where different conditions are ranked. These new estimates clearly indicate where additional investments in services are most urgently needed.

Dr Samira Asma, Assistant DirectorGeneral for the Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at WHO, added: “Robust health data are critical to address inequalities, prioritize policies and allocate resources to prevent disability and save lives. The WHO Global Health Estimates are a powerful tool to maximize health and economic impact. We call upon governments and stakeholders to urgently invest in data and health information systems to support timely and effective decision-making.”

The Global Health Observatory https://www.who.int/data/gho