Data crunched by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that the COVID-19 emergency reversed more than a decade of gains in life expectancy, reinforcing the need for countries to agree on a global pandemic treaty to protect future generations.
According to the UN agency, between 2019 and 2021—the early years of the global health emergency—life expectancy around the world dropped by 1.8 years to 71.4 years, which is the 2012 level.
Responding to the findings, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the fragility of global health advances when confronted with unprecedented emergencies like the pandemic, which caused more than seven million confirmed deaths.
“In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy,” Tedros said. “That’s why the new Pandemic Agreement is so important: not only to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries.”
Regionally, the Americas and South-East Asia felt the biggest impact of the coronavirus, with life expectancy dropping by around three years.
In contrast, Western Pacific countries were minimally affected during the first two years of the pandemic, with only small losses in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy.
The WHO’s World Health Statistics 2024 report confirmed that COVID-19 was the third highest cause of death globally in 2020 and the second highest a year later.
The coronavirus was also the leading cause of mortality in the Americas for 2020 and 2021.
Before the pandemic, noncommunicable diseases remained the top killer, the UN health agency said, accounting for 74 percent of all deaths in 2019.UN News
During the pandemic, chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke, cancer and dementia were behind 78 percent of non-COVID deaths.
Other major causes of lives being cut short are malnutrition, undernutrition, overweight and obesity. In 2022, over one billion people aged five years and older lived with obesity, while more than half a billion were underweight.
“Malnutrition in children was also striking,” the WHO report said, “with 148 million children under five years old affected by stunting—too short for age—45 million suffering from wasting—too thin for height—and 37 million overweight.”
The WHO’s World Health Statistics report also highlighted the challenges faced by people with disabilities, refugees and migrants.
In 2021, about 1.3 billion people, or 16 percent of the global population, had a disability. “This group is disproportionately affected by health inequities resulting from avoidable, unjust and unfair conditions,” the UN health agency said.
Similar medical aid access problems exist for refugees and migrants, the WHO noted, after finding that only half of the dozens of countries surveyed between 2018 and 2021 provided publicly funded healthcare to them at the same level as other citizens. “This highlights the urgent need for health systems to adapt and address the persisting inequities and changing demographic needs of global populations,” WHO said. UN News
