U.N. News: COVID-19 threatens to undo global health progress
“While more people are living longer and healthier lives, the rate of progress is too slow to realize global efforts to stamp out poverty and inequality by 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. WHO’s latest World Health Statistics reveal that low-income countries reported the biggest gains in life expectancy, which rose by 11 years between 2000 and 2016. Other achievements during this period include a dramatic scale-up in access to services to prevent and treat HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. Child mortality was also halved thanks to better maternal and child healthcare. However, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could further thwart progress…” (5/13).

Additional coverage of WHO and UNICEF data on the impacts of COVID-19 on life expectancy and health is available from The Hill, U.N. News, and Xinhua.