2011
Historical agreements at the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly
In her closing address Director-General Dr Margaret Chan praised delegates for consensus on issues that profoundly affect public health. Apart from discussions on unprecedented reforms at WHO, Member States reached agreements that expand the capacity of all countries to respond to pandemic influenza and other emergencies, strengthen health systems to improve access to quality care, tackle chronic noncommunicable diseases, and give the world a better chance to reach the health-related MDGs.
WHO launches one-stop shop for health data in cities
With urbanization as a leading trend in health issues over the next decade and beyond, the WHO has launched the first-ever global access to urban health data. Recent decades have seen increased availability in evidence-based information for national health indicators, but there is a dearth of city level data using globally agreed standards. Urban data for 45 countries is now available as part of the WHO Global Health Observatory Database.
“This is a significant milestone to improve urban policies by providing the data needed to formulate evidence-based legislation and regulations around health,” notes Dr Kumaresan, Director of the WHO Centre for Health Development. “But more work is needed for cities to collect that data. This marks the beginning of the long road ahead to provide a statistical view into the lives of people living in cities.” The WHO Centre for Health Development serves as the coordinating research centre for global urban health data.
Urban health is one of 20 themes contained in the WHO Global Health Observatory. Other themes include women and health, road safety, and noncommunicable diseases. The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities (of which urban health is one). Each theme page provides information on global situation and trends highlights, using core indicators, database views, major publications and links to relevant web pages on the theme.
For example, analysis shows urban under-five mortality rates have improved in 86% of the countries studied (comparing the periods of 1990-1999 and 2000-2007). However, the data also shows that differences in health outcomes between the urban rich and urban poor are present in almost all countries. Key urban health indicators such as infant mortality, tobacco consumption, air pollution, access to safe water, and HIV/AIDS can be accessed in the newly launched database.
Saving 5 million lives on our streets and highways by 2020
Road traffic injuries are now the number one cause of death globally for young people aged 15-29. In Japan, over 6500 traffic deaths occur annually for all age groups; pedestrians make up the highest percentage of victims. With the increasing burden of death and disability caused by road accidents, the UN General Assembly declared this Decade of Action in March 2010, with WHO taking the lead. On 11 May, dozens of countries around the world will kick off the decade (2011-2020) with events including the lighting up of landmark monuments in London, Brazil, and New York. Governments from New Zealand to Mexico and South Africa are committing to taking new steps to save lives on their roads. If successfully implemented, the Global Plan's activities could save 5 million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries over the course of the decade.
New WHO report: deaths from noncommunicable diseases on the rise
Noncommunicable diseases are the leading killer today and are on the increase, the first WHO Global status report on noncommunicable diseases launched on 27 April confirms. In 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, 36.1 million people died from conditions such as heart disease, strokes, chronic lung diseases, cancers and diabetes. Nearly 80% of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.