World Health Organization (W.H.O.) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the world is facing a “global health financing emergency” in the latest edition of the agency’s World Health Statistics report, published on Wednesday.
The report documents the rate of diagnoses of various major health conditions and diseases, as well as phenomena that affect health such as domestic violence, tobacco and alcohol use, and pollution. The report found significant declines in the incidents of several major global health conditions and evidence of some improved lifestyle changes globally, but lamented with each bit of good news that the results were not in line with the “Sustainable Development Goals” for 2030 that the United Nations had set. The report especially focused on the lack of political progress in obtaining global universal health care, which the W.H.O. openly advocates for.