World Health Day

 Between countries: A child born in Lesotho can expect to live to the age of 51 while a child born in Japan can expect to live to 84. Under-5 mortality is more than eight times higher in Africa than in Europe, and developing countries account for 99% of the world’s maternal deaths.  Within countries: Children from the poorest households are twice as likely to die before the age of 5 years than children from the richest households, while children in the poorest 20% of households are over four times more likely to experience severe mental health problems that those in the highest 20%.  Between neighbourhoods: In Glasgow, male life expectancy ranges from 66.2 years in lessadvantaged parts of the city to 81.7 years in more advantaged areas. In London, when travelling east from Westminster on the city’s underground system, each stop represents a drop of nearly a year in life expectancy.

 Health and illness follow a social gradient – the lower a person’s socioeconomic position, the worse their chances for health. This downward slope is the product of the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and their access to power, resources and decision-making (the “ social determinants ofhealth ”). These conditions include a person’s education ; income ; access to social protection (e.g. affordable child services, sickness pay, unemployment protection; and pensions); access to quality health services and good nutrition; access to healthy housing and clean air ; and to financial and judicial services.  The quality of these conditions is often made worse by discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice, which most often affect women and girls, older people, people with disability, or are based on race, ethnicity or sexual identity. Such discrimination occurs not only between individuals, but is often embedded within our institutions and systems, l...

 This is the second World Health Day to fall during the COVID-19 pandemic – the world’s worst peacetime health crisis in a century. It comes amidst gruelling and painful times for the world’s people who are dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, including those working in the health sector.  As of 1 April 2021, over 2.8 million people had died from the COVID-19 virus, and more than 130 million people had contracted it – many of whom now live with long-term health impacts. At the same time, the wider health consequences of the pandemic have left untold millions bearing the costs in terms of their emotional, social, and economic well-being. Loss of employment and income has exacerbated food insecurity; health services have been partially or completely disrupted across the world; and there have been adverse impacts on mental and physical health. The cost of COVID-19 is so high that it demands we do things differently: that we commit to building a fairer and healthier world b...