Rich-poor gap in health coverage among women has halved: WHO

ISLAMABAD: The Health Inequ­ality Data Repository (HIDR), laun­ched by World Health Organisation (WHO), shows that in just a decade, the rich-poor gap in health service coverage among women, newborns and children in low- and middle-income countries has nearly halved.

The report also revealed that in these countries eliminating wealth-related inequality in under-five mortality could help save the lives of 1.8 million children.

In high-income countries, hypertension is more common among men than women and obesity rates are similar among men and women. By contrast, in low-income countries, hypertension rates are similar amo­ng women and men, but obesity rates are higher among women than men.

The HIDR is the most comprehensive global collection of publicly available disaggregated data and evidence on population health and its determinants. The repository allows for tracking health inequalities across population groups and over time by breaking down data according to group characteristics, ranging from education level to ethnicity.

Unicef says Covid-19 has disrupted childhood immunisation

According to a statement issued by WHO, the HIDR includes nearly 11 million data points and consists of 59 data sets from over 15 sources. The data includes measurements of over 2000 indicators broken down by 22 dimensions of inequality, including demographic, socioeconomic and geographical factors.

Topics covered include the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Covid-19; reproductive, maternal and child health; immunisation; HIV; tuberculosis; malaria; nutrition; health care; non-communicable diseases and environmental health.

“The ability to direct services to those who need them the most is vital to advancing health equity and improving lives. Designed as a one-stop-shop for data on health inequality, the Repository will help us move beyond only counting births and deaths, to disaggregating health data according to sex, age, education, region and more,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “If we are truly committed to leaving no one behind, we must figure out who is being missed.”

Releasing the HIDR, WHO has called on countries to adopt routine health inequality monitoring, make disaggregated data publicly available, expand data collection and increase capacity for analysis and reporting.

Covid-19 disrupts immunisation

Unicef has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted childhood immunisation, with 67 million children are missing out entirely or partially on routine immunisation between 2019 and 2021, leaving them vulnerable to a range of preventable diseases.

In a report titled, State of the World’s Children Report released on Thursday, Unicef says with vaccination coverage levels decreasing in 112 countries, children born just before or during the pandemic are now moving past the age when they would normally be vaccinated, underscoring the need for urgent action to catch up on those who were missed and prevent deadly disease outbreaks.

“Right now, far too many children across the world are not getting the vaccines they need to protect them against death and serious disease,” the report notes.

It says that one in five children worldwide are now zero-dose or under-vaccinated, meaning they have missed out entirely or partially on routine immunisation. Those are levels we have not seen since 2008.

Zero-dose children are those who have not received their first diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DTP1). Under-vaccinated children are those who received one dose, but not a third protective dose.

The report says diseases are now reappearing in countries where they had previously been controlled. Meanwhile, surges of cases in nations that had not yet eliminated the diseases are also seen. Those include cholera, measles and polio outbreaks.

Regions of East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, that hadn’t experienced large-scale outbreaks in over a decade, were impacted.

More than three out of four of the world’s zero-dose children live in 20 countries. They live in the remotest of rural areas, urban slums, crisis-affected regions, and migrant and refugee communities. These children urgently need to be reached with vaccines.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a disaster for childhood immunisation, but even before the pandemic, the warning signs were there.

The report has urged governments to urgently identify and reach all children, especially those who missed vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic; strengthen demand for vaccines, including by building confidence; prioritise funding to immunisation services and primary health care; and build resilient health systems through investment in female health workers, innovation and local manufacturing.