UN millennium health goals will not be achieved, report warns
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《英国医生杂志》
The health objectives of the United Nations?millennium development goals will not be achieved by 2015 unless investments in national health systems are "dramatically increased" and many more doctors, nurses, midwives, and other health professionals are made available. That is the warning from the World Health Organization in its latest report evaluating progress towards the goals.
The 82 page report says that unless these goals are met "large numbers of people will continue to die of mostly preventable diseases."
It says that among the "annual avoidable deaths in developing countries will be those of 10.6 million children under five, hundreds of thousands of victims of malaria, and more than half a million women in pregnancy and childbirth." The AIDS pandemic kills more than three million people worldwide every year.
Of the eight goals agreed by 189 world leaders at their summit in 2000, three relate to health: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating major diseases such as AIDS and malaria. The goal for child mortality was a reduction by two thirds of the 1990 figure by 2015 and that for maternal mortality was a reduction by three quarters over the same period. The third goal was to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015.
"Providing universal access to broad based health services could save several million children抯 lives every year," said Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO抯 director general. "That would reverse the downward trends and bring us two thirds of the way to meeting the child mortality goal and 70% to 80% towards meeting the maternal mortality goal.
"We have the treatments; the technology is known and affordable. The problem in many countries is getting the staff, medicines, vaccines, and information to those who need them on time and in sufficient quantities. In too many countries the health systems to do that either do not exist or are on the point of collapse."
Sustainable funding is the key to securing health systems, WHO says in the report. A minimum of $30 (?7; �24) to $40 per person is needed annually to finance a minimum health package, but many poor countries invest far less: on average $10 per person and in some countries as little as $2 per person.
A second major obstacle to achieving the three goals is a severe staff shortage, said Ties Boerma, WHO抯 director of measurement and health information systems. "Ninety per cent of Africans live in areas where there are fewer than five doctors per 10 000 people—that is a ratio of 1 to 2000."
Dr Boerma blamed the lack of staff on the substantial migration of health personnel from poor countries to wealthy industrialised nations, the deaths of many health workers from AIDS, and poor pay and working conditions in developing countries.
"All these causes have created a human resources crisis," he said.(Geneva Paul Ress)
The 82 page report says that unless these goals are met "large numbers of people will continue to die of mostly preventable diseases."
It says that among the "annual avoidable deaths in developing countries will be those of 10.6 million children under five, hundreds of thousands of victims of malaria, and more than half a million women in pregnancy and childbirth." The AIDS pandemic kills more than three million people worldwide every year.
Of the eight goals agreed by 189 world leaders at their summit in 2000, three relate to health: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating major diseases such as AIDS and malaria. The goal for child mortality was a reduction by two thirds of the 1990 figure by 2015 and that for maternal mortality was a reduction by three quarters over the same period. The third goal was to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015.
"Providing universal access to broad based health services could save several million children抯 lives every year," said Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO抯 director general. "That would reverse the downward trends and bring us two thirds of the way to meeting the child mortality goal and 70% to 80% towards meeting the maternal mortality goal.
"We have the treatments; the technology is known and affordable. The problem in many countries is getting the staff, medicines, vaccines, and information to those who need them on time and in sufficient quantities. In too many countries the health systems to do that either do not exist or are on the point of collapse."
Sustainable funding is the key to securing health systems, WHO says in the report. A minimum of $30 (?7; �24) to $40 per person is needed annually to finance a minimum health package, but many poor countries invest far less: on average $10 per person and in some countries as little as $2 per person.
A second major obstacle to achieving the three goals is a severe staff shortage, said Ties Boerma, WHO抯 director of measurement and health information systems. "Ninety per cent of Africans live in areas where there are fewer than five doctors per 10 000 people—that is a ratio of 1 to 2000."
Dr Boerma blamed the lack of staff on the substantial migration of health personnel from poor countries to wealthy industrialised nations, the deaths of many health workers from AIDS, and poor pay and working conditions in developing countries.
"All these causes have created a human resources crisis," he said.(Geneva Paul Ress)