State of health 1998

1998/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

The World Health Organization has shown optimism in publishing its main annual report: The work is titled “Annual Report on the State of World Health” and collects, as usual, the main milestones of this year. The WHO detects a trend to increase life expectancy that manifests from 2025: today the average life of the world's citizens is 66 years and from that year, within 28 years, so it is estimated that it will be 73.

This trend will not be the same in developed and developing countries. Hiroshi Nakajima, president of the World Health Organization, has stated that currently three out of four citizens die in the Third World before the age of 50. Another worrying fact: 10 million children will die this year before the age of five.

Optimism is due to the advancement of medicine. According to the World Health Organization, for the first time in history the advances of medicine are in the hands of almost all citizens, although, as we said before, there is a big difference. Vaccines are increasingly abundant and cheaper; in prevention there has been a significant qualitative leap, which allows to treat diseases that until recently were completely fatal.

Thus, by 2025, the population of this planet Earth, at least two-legged animals, will be healthier. Meanwhile, last year highlighted the types of infections in the death ranking: almost 18 million people died infected. It is followed by heart disease, which caused almost 16 million deaths; cancer in third place, with almost 7 million deaths and almost 2 million deaths in accidents and violent incidents.