COVID-19 has reversed a decade of global advancements in life expectancy, WHO says
The latest World Health Statistics report, released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has eliminated the progress in life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth (HALE).
The report released on Friday, May 24 revealed that the pandemic wiped out nearly a decade of progress in life expectancy in just two years.
Between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy declined by 1.8 years to 71.4 years, reverting to 2012 levels. Likewise, global healthy life expectancy decreased by 1.5 years to 61.9 years in 2021, also returning to the 2012 level.
The 2024 report underscores the unequal impact of the pandemic across the globe. The WHO regions of the Americas and Southeast Asia experienced the most significant declines, with life expectancy dropping by about 3 years and healthy life expectancy by 2.5 years between 2019 and 2021.
On the contrary, the Western Pacific Region experienced minimal impact during the first two years of the pandemic, with life expectancy decreasing by less than 0.1 years and healthy life expectancy by only 0.2 years.
“There continues to be major progress in global health, with billions of people who are enjoying better health, better access to services, and better protection from health emergencies,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “But we must remember how fragile progress can be. In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy. That's why the new Pandemic Agreement is so important: not only to strengthen global health security but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries.”
In the issues of killer diseases, COVID-19 ranked as the third highest cause of death in the world in 2020 and the second in 2021. Adding that Nearly 13 million lives were lost during this timeframe.
However, the WHO report emphasises that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes were the leading causes of death before the pandemic, responsible for 74% of all deaths in 2019. Even amid the pandemic, NCDs remained the primary cause of non-COVID deaths, accounting for 78% of them.
