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16.9 million lives were lost from conditions requiring surgical care in 2010 Unrecognised need Until recently, surgery was not recognised as a significant contributor to the global disease burden and was not a top priority in the eyes of global public health agencies. But recent estimates from The Lancet claim that five billion people lack access to safe and affordable surgical services.
Five billion people cannot get safe and affordable surgical and anaesthesia care, 90 per cent of people in LMICs can’t even get basic surgical care Jim Yong Kim MD, PhD, 12th President of the The World Bank
Five billion affected Many surgical needs are unmet. The landmark Lancet global surgery report (see following page) estimates that there is demand for an additional 143 million surgical procedures each year. This unmet need contributes up to 30 per cent of the global burden of disease and, if met, could address 25 per cent of all treatable disabilities.
the mortality rates of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Figures vary, but he WHO estimates that there were 16.9 million premature deaths due to lack of safe surgical care in 2010.
Lack of surgeons The surgical capacity of the developing world is low. There are roughly 0.5 surgeons per 100,000 people in the developing world and five times fewer within sub-Saharan Africa. For comparison, Austria has almost 98 surgeons per 100,000 people. Surgeons trained abroad will often learn on equipment that will not be available to them locally. Many will decide not to come back to their country of origin.
Basic surgeries such as setting broken bones or delivering babies via cesarean section are among the most cost-effective health interventions in developing countries The World Bank
4.7 million deaths could be prevented each year, a figure that exceeds
Challenges of our era summit
