Every year, we glance at the highest global health issues coming our way within the next 12 months. But global health could be a long game and it’s a brand-new decade, so this year, we’re looking ahead to the approaching 10 years
From coronavirus to digital health to climate change, here are 10 of the global health issues that we will be watching in the decade to come.
Infectious diseases & pandemics
In 2018, Bill Gates told Business Insider that a coming disease—maybe one just like the 1918 flu—could kill 30 million people within six months, which countries should harden it like they might for war.
Coronavirus—now officially called COVID-19—likely be as disastrous as that exact prediction, there are 25,170,274 confirmed cases globally across large integer countries, and 846,792 people have died. it’s global health officials very concerned about just how prepared we are for this or the other pandemic. Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
They carry huge responsibility and a big risk. In one Wuhan hospital, one patient infected a minimum of ten medical examiners and 4 other patients, in keeping with the big apple Times.
That’s one reason the Frontline medical experts Coalition is advocating for more support for frontline medical examiner teams, not only as they fight this outbreak but also as a focused investment in resilient, sustainable, locally-led health systems that will answer communicable disease outbreaks.
Strong supply chains
During the primary week of the coronavirus outbreak in China, medical experts from eight hospitals within the Hubei Province, where the town of Wuhan is found, put out an urgent require medical supplies—specifically surgical masks, goggles, and gowns, consistent with a report by the big apple Times.
“There aren’t any beds, no resources,” a nurse said in an interview with CNN. “Are we presupposed to just fight this battle bare-handed?”
If we’re visiting achieve universal health coverage within the coming decade, supply chain management are more crucial than ever.
“No health program can succeed if the medicines and health products people need aren’t available when and where they have them,” write IntraHealth’s Batouo Souare and Melanie Joiner. Without qualified, well-trained human resources to manage supply chains, we can’t confirm health products are available, either day-to-day or during emergencies.
“It’s been ten years since the primary truly affordable smartphone was introduced and unleashed a change across the African continent,” says Wayan Vota, IntraHealth’s director of digital health. “These days, over 40% of all Africans use smartphones, and also the technology generates 8.6% of GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa. But the tech transformation hasn’t stopped with telecommunications. the sphere of digital health has expanded, too.”
In the coming decade, he says, medical examiners and officials around the world are visiting get more sophisticated within the way they collect, share, and analyze data. From advanced image processing algorithms that diagnose cancer and eye diseases to chatbots that detect depression in real-time—digital health tech and its users will need to continue with all-new issues around data security, machine learning, and using data to resolve a number of our biggest disease challenges.
Heart disease, cancer, & the groundswell of noncommunicable diseases
Today around 70% of all cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
As people everywhere the planet live longer than ever, this and other noncommunicable diseases—including obesity-related illnesses, hypertension, diabetes, a heart condition, and mental illness—have become the leading reason for death and disability worldwide.
“When I used to be starting out as a young doctor here in Senegal, noncommunicable diseases were thought to be a thing for rich people,” says Joseph Barboza, a physician in Senegal and director of IntraHealth International’s work on Better Hearts Better Cities Dakar. “It accustomed to be infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and meningitis that brought people to the hospital room. Now, most of these emergencies are caused by NCDs, usually hypertension. In some cities, the prevalence is as high as 40%.”
In the coming decade, countries will need resilient health systems and powerful health workforces to fulfill this challenge.
A tidal wave of mental health needs
Time reports, suicide rates are the best they’ve been since warfare II. A study published in Pediatrics in November 2019 found that the speed of suicide attempts for black youths within the US rose 73% from 1991 to 2017.
And in keeping with the planet Health Organization, between 76% and 85% of individuals with mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries receive no treatment for his or her disorders, including depression, major affective disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, drug abuse, and developmental disorders.
We can’t last pretending that a tsunami of need isn’t going unmet.
South Sudan, for instance, “will have an amazing need for psychological state services within the post-conflict era,” says Anne Kinuthia, IntraHealth’s country director in South Sudan, where violence has left 4.3 million people displaced. “But we don’t have the systems or workforce in situ during this country to manage mental state. We see people tied to their hospital beds or locked up reception. If we would like to work out healthy societies, people with mental state needs will need support, too.”
The global health workforce
Nurses, midwives, doctors, pharmacists, lab workers, clinical officers—the range of jobs and responsibilities within the health workforce is vast. and everyone is crucial.
The 2020s are coming out with a spotlight on nurses and midwives. And rightly so—they structure 50% of the health workforce worldwide. As we catch up with our most ambitious global goals—nothing wanting universal health coverage, an AIDS-free generation, and also the end of utmost poverty—the global community has realized that nurses and midwives are those to urge us there. That’s one reason the WHO declared 2020 to be the Year of the Nurse and also the Midwife.
But to form real progress, the health workforce needs to need more nurses and midwives at the highest. Which brings us to:
Women leaders in health care
Women frame 70% of the entire health and social care workforce and a far larger share of the nursing and midwifery profession, yet they occupy only 25% of health system leadership roles.
One of the numerous reasons, consistent with the 2019 report Investing within the Power of Nurse Leadership: what is going to It Take? is that girls, more so than men, must juggle paid and unpaid work, managing jobs, and residential life at the identical time. Case in point:
“I remember once, I found a four-week-old baby sleeping on the ground in a very corner of the nurses’ office,” writes Tembi Mugore, a midwife and senior advisor for health sector performance and sustainability at IntraHealth. “When I asked whose baby it absolutely was, the nurse-midwife, who was busy providing antenatal care at the identical time, responded, “She is my baby. I couldn’t be maternity leave for long because I’m the sole nurse-midwife at this clinic. This community relies on me.”
“It’s clear this isn’t about the individual nurse who needs to be developed,” said IntraHealth’s Constance Newman at the report’s launch event at Women Deliver 2019. “It’s about the systems that need to be changed in order to raise the profile and improve the status and effectiveness of nurse leaders.”
In the coming decade, we’ll be pushing for greater global progress toward gender equity, in the health workforce and beyond.
Our ambitious 2030 goals
We have lots to try and do before 2030 if we’re visiting get near achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
We want to realize an AIDS-free generation. planning for all who need it. Universal health coverage. Gender equality in health care. An end to maternal and child deaths. And solutions for the 70.8 million those that have now been forcibly displaced from their homes because of war and other disasters.
In the coming decade, we’ll be monitoring and pushing for progress on these fronts—working hard to make the long run we wish.
A version of this article was originally published on https://www.intrahealth.org/vital/10-global-health-issues-watch-2020s by Margarite
