WHO RELEASES TOP TEN HEALTH THREATS IN 2019

WHO RELEASES TOP TEN HEALTH THREATS IN 2019

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the top 10 threats to health problems to be solved in 2019, including air pollution and climate change, non-communicable diseases, global influenza, poor living conditions, antibiotic resistance, Ebola virus. And other high-threatening pathogens, weak primary health care, reluctance to vaccinate, dengue fever and HIV.

Air Pollution And Climate Change

Nine out of ten people around the world breathe polluted air every day. In 2019, the World Health Organization listed air pollution as the biggest environmental issue for health.

Micro-contaminants in the air can damage the lungs, heart and brain through the respiratory and circulatory systems, killing 7 million people prematurely every year from diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart disease and lung disease. About 90% of these deaths come from low- and middle-income countries, and emissions from industrial, transportation, and agricultural emissions are high, and household stoves and fuel emissions are also high.

The main cause of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels, which is also the main cause of climate change, which affects people's health in different ways. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause 250,000 deaths each year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.

In October 2018, WHO held its first global conference on air pollution and health in Geneva. Countries and organizations have made more than 70 commitments to improve air quality.

The United Nations Climate Summit last September aims to strengthen global climate action and determination. Even if countries achieve all the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, global temperature rises will still exceed 3°C in this century.

Non-Communicable Diseases

Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease account for more than 70% of the world's deaths, or 41 million. This includes 15 million premature deaths, aged between 30 and 69.

More than 85% of premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. The increase in these diseases is caused by five major health threats: smoking, lack of physical activity, excess alcohol, unhealthy diet and air pollution. These risk factors also exacerbate mental health problems, mostly in early childhood: half of mentally ill patients are under 14 years of age, but most cases are undetected and untreated, while those in the 15-19 age group The two major causes of death are the suicides that result.

This year, the World Health Organization will work with the government in many ways to help them achieve their global goals of reducing physical activity by 15% by 2030 and helping active people to stay active every day by implementing positive policy tools.

Global Flu

The world will face another big flu, just don't know when it will break out and how serious it will be. And the global defense in this area is as short as the weakest link in any national health emergency preparedness and response system.

WHO continues to monitor the spread of influenza viruses and detect potential pandemic strains, with 153 institutions in 114 countries participating in global surveillance and response.

Every year, the World Health Organization recommends which strains are included in the flu vaccine to protect people from seasonal flu. If a new influenza strain is found to have a potential risk of a pandemic, WHO has established a unique partnership with all major players to ensure effective and equitable access to diagnostics, vaccines and antiviral drugs, especially in developing countries.

Bad Living Environment

According to WHO  more than 1.6 billion people which is almost is 22% of the global population live in long-term crisis situations such as drought, famine, conflict and population displacement and where health services are inadequate to access basic health care.

Almost all parts of the world have inadequate medical conditions, which are also half of the key to sustainable development goals, and children and maternal health issues are still not fully resolved.

WHO will continue to work in relevant countries to strengthen health systems so that they can better detect and respond to outbreaks and provide quality health services such as vaccination.

Antibiotic Resistance

The development of antibiotics, antiviral drugs and antimalarial is one of the greatest successes of modern medicine. However, the effects of these drugs are not as good as before. The ability of bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi to fight these drugs has increased, and antibiotic resistance may make it difficult for us to treat pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea and salmonellae. Failure to prevent infection can seriously affect the effects of surgery and chemotherapy.

The resistance of TB drugs is a huge obstacle to the treatment of diseases, causing about 10 million people to become sick and 1.6 million deaths each year. In 2017, about 600,000 tuberculosis patients developed resistance to rifampicin, of which 82% had tuberculosis, and the latter was the most effective first-line drug.

Drug resistance is caused by people's excessive use of antibacterial drugs, or by humans, especially those produced by foods, and by the excessive use of antibacterial drugs in the environment.

WHO is working with relevant sectors to raise awareness and knowledge, reduce infections and encourage the prudent use of antimicrobial, and implement a global action plan to address antimicrobial resistance.

Ebola Virus and Other High-Threat Pathogens

In 2018, two Ebola outbreaks broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, both of which spread to more than one million cities, one of which was in an active conflict zone.

This suggests that an environment of high-threatening pathogens such as the Ebola virus is critical, and that past outbreaks in rural areas do not always affect densely populated urban areas or conflict-affected areas.

At the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Conference held in December last year, participants in the public health, animal health, transportation and tourism sectors focused on addressing the serious challenges of outbreaks and health emergencies in urban areas, calling on the World Health Organization and partners to be 2019 It is defined as “the year of action prepared for responding to emergencies”.

The WHO R&D Blueprint identifies diseases and pathogens that can lead to public health emergencies but lack effective treatment and vaccines.

Primary Health Care is Weak

Primary health care is often the first point of contact for people with the health care system, and ideally it should provide people with comprehensive and affordable community care throughout their lives.

Primary health care can meet most of the health needs of a person's life, and we need a stronger primary health care system to achieve universal health coverage.

However, many countries do not have adequate primary health care facilities. This neglect may be the lack of resources in low- or middle-income countries, but it may also be the single focus of disease programs over the past few decades.

In October 2018, the World Health Organization co-hosted an important global conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, and all countries committed themselves to reaffirming the commitment made to primary health care in the Almaty Declaration of 1978.

Vaccine Hesitation

Although vaccines are available, some people are unwilling or refusing to vaccinate, and this may change the progress made in responding to vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways to avoid disease, with an annual reduction of 2 to 3 million deaths and an additional 1.5 million deaths if global vaccination coverage is improved.

For example, the measles case has increased by 30% globally. The reasons for the rise are complex and not all cases are reluctant to vaccinate. However, some countries that are about to eradicate the disease have shown signs of recovery.

The reasons people choose not to be vaccinated are complicated. A World Health Organization's vaccine counseling team found that the main reasons were people's overconfidence in their own health, inconvenience in getting vaccines, and lack of confidence in the vaccine.

Health workers, especially those in the community, remain the most trusted vaccination decision-makers and influencers, and we must support their work to provide reliable vaccine information.

Last year, the two countries reported fewer than 30 cases. The World Health Organization and partners are committed to supporting these countries in vaccinating every child in order to eradicate this deadly disease.

Dengue

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause flu-like symptoms and can be fatal. The mortality rate of patients with severe dengue is as high as 20%, which has been a growing health threat for decades.

The rainy season in countries such as Bangladesh and India is accompanied by a large number of cases. Now, in these countries, the rainy season has been significantly extended. In 2018, Bangladesh has the largest number of deaths in the last two decades, and the disease is spreading to nearby tropical and temperate countries, such as Nepal, where traditionally such cases do not occur.

It is estimated that 40% of people worldwide suffer from dengue fever, with approximately 390 million people infected each year. The WHO's dengue control strategy aims to reduce deaths by 50% by 2020.

HIV

The world has made great progress in human detection, providing antiretroviral drugs (22 million people are receiving treatment) and providing preventive measures such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, such as the use of PrEP when people may be infected with AIDS.

However, the disease continues to spread, with nearly 1 million people dying every year from HIV/AIDS. More than 70 million people have contracted the disease since the outbreak, and about 35 million people have died.

Today, approximately 37 million people worldwide are infected with HIV. Providing treatment for sex workers, prison inmates, same-sex relationships, or transgender people is extremely challenging and these groups are often excluded from health services.

The growing population affected by HIV is a young female population (15-24 years old) who are at high risk. Young women account for a quarter of HIV infection cases in sub-Saharan Africa, although only 10% of the total population.