{"id":2547,"date":"2025-03-20T13:46:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/from-cradle-to-cane-whos-new-european-health-report-warns\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T13:46:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:16:26","slug":"from-cradle-to-cane-whos-new-european-health-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/from-cradle-to-cane-whos-new-european-health-report-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"From cradle to cane: WHO\u2019s new European Health Report warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.who.int\/media\/images\/librariesprovider2\/default-album\/news-images\/european-health-report---web00315.tmb-1200v.jpg?sfvrsn=94647b14_4\"><\/p>\n<p>Despite progress in some areas, the WHO European Region \u2013 long reputed to have some of the world\u2019s strongest health systems \u2013 is largely stagnating or even backsliding on a range of indicators from child and adolescent health to chronic diseases. That is the thrust of WHO\u2019s latest European Health Report, drawing upon the most recently available data across all 53 Member States across Europe and central Asia.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dpVkKiWvji0?si=IMuL_rbMTuQPiMOK\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Almost 76\u00a0000 children in the European Region die before their fifth birthday every year; noncommunicable diseases claim 1 in 6 people before age 70<\/h2>\n<h3>Copenhagen, 25 February 2025\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>Despite progress in some areas, the WHO European Region \u2013 long reputed to have some of the world\u2019s strongest health systems \u2013 is largely stagnating or even backsliding on a range of indicators from child and adolescent health to chronic diseases. That is the thrust of WHO\u2019s latest European Health Report, drawing upon the most recently available data across all 53 Member States across Europe and central Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Published every 3 years and using country-level evidence, the flagship European Health Report paints the most comprehensive picture of health regionwide. It provides governments and policy-makers with clear markers as to the way forward at a time when megatrends \u2013 including dangerous disinformation, a health workforce crisis, rapid population ageing and climate change \u2013 are impacting health as never before.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Closing the infant mortality gap and protecting child health<\/h3>\n<p>While the European Region as a whole has some of the lowest rates of preventable child deaths globally, the difference between the best and worst-performing countries is vast, ranging from 1.5 deaths per 1000 live births to 40.4. Closing this gap remains a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the most recently available data on under-5 mortality across all 53 Member States reveals that 75\u00a0647 children died before their fifth birthday in 2022. The top 5 causes of under-5 mortality are: preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, congenital heart anomalies, lower respiratory infections, and neonatal sepsis and other infections.<\/p>\n<p>Additional concerns for child and adolescent health:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 in 5 adolescents in the European Region grapples with a mental health condition.<\/li>\n<li>Suicide is the leading cause of death among 15\u201329-year-olds.<\/li>\n<li>Girls consistently report lower levels of mental well-being compared with boys.<\/li>\n<li>15% of adolescents report they have recently experienced cyberbullying. <\/li>\n<li>1 in 10 adolescents aged 13\u201315 years use some form of tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. <\/li>\n<li>Nearly 1 in 3 school-aged children is overweight, and 1 in 8 is living with obesity. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The marketing of products high in salt, fat and sugar has a negative influence on children\u2019s and adolescents\u2019 consumption patterns, and contributes to long-term ill health. Yet most countries still allow such harmful marketing practices to continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn our online and interconnected world, our young people are ironically feeling lonelier than ever before, with many struggling with their weight and self-confidence, setting them up for poor health as adults,\u201d said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe. \u201cThat\u2019s why later this year, WHO\/Europe and the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF), will present all 53 Member States of the WHO European Region with a landmark new child and adolescent health strategy for adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Preventable deaths from noncommunicable diseases <\/h3>\n<p>The European Region has made great strides in tackling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) \u2013 by far the biggest killer in our Region. At least 10 Member States have met the WHO target of a 25% reduction in premature mortality from the 4 major NCDs. Yet, overall in the European Region, 1 in 6 people still die before they reach their 70th birthday from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cardiovascular diseases account for 33.5% \u2013 one third \u2013 of premature deaths from NCDs in the Region, with the risk nearly 5 times higher in eastern Europe and central Asia than in western Europe. Cancer causes another third \u2013 32.8% \u2013 of premature deaths in the European Region as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>The report identifies the following additional concerns related to NCDs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The European Region has the world\u2019s highest alcohol intake, averaging 8.8 litres of pure alcohol per adult per year. Intake is currently highest in the European Union and lowest in the central Asian countries.<\/li>\n<li>Tobacco use among adults remains high at 25.3% overall.<\/li>\n<li>The Region is not on track to meet the target of a 30% reduction in smoking by 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cNoncommunicable diseases still don\u2019t get the attention they deserve, despite accounting for 90% of all deaths in our Region,\u201d noted Dr Kluge. \u201cInterestingly, cancer incidence is higher in western and northern Europe compared to eastern Europe and central Asia, where cardiovascular diseases are more common, in part due to different living conditions, population health behaviours, and health system effectiveness. The entire Region must confront the root causes of chronic disease, from tobacco and alcohol use to poor access to healthy and nutritious food, to air pollution, to a lack of physical activity. The climate crisis is only making matters worse by driving disease burdens across the spectrum, especially chronic disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0WHO European Region is the fastest warming\u00a0of the 6 WHO regions, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate. Across the Region, there are an estimated 175\u00a0000 heat-related deaths every year.\u00a0Additionally, it is important to recognize the impact of the health sector itself on the environment. In 2020, the global health-care sector was responsible for approximately 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<h3>Routine vaccination rates are stagnating with resurgence of infectious disease <\/h3>\n<p>Suboptimal vaccination rates in recent years, in an environment of increased anti-vaccine sentiment fuelled by disinformation, have led to a resurgence of preventable diseases. In 2023, there were 58\u00a0000 measles cases across 41 Member States of the European Region, a staggering 30-fold rise on the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, success in addressing tuberculosis (TB) in the European Region must be celebrated, with a 25% reduction in TB incidence and a 32% decrease in TB deaths between 2015 and 2022. Despite this, drug- resistant TB remains a growing problem. These hard-to-treat drug-resistant TB cases account for a quarter of new cases and their treatment success rate is well below the target of 80%. However, new evidence from 13 countries shows how a reduced 9-month treatment plan for multidrug-resistant TB has a treatment success rate of 83%, well above the current average success rate for the European Region of 57%. In the past, treatment for drug-resistant TB could take as long as 3 years.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>In addition, around 3 million people are living with HIV in the European Region. Although the rate of diagnosed HIV infection decreased from 16.4 to 12.4 per 100\u00a0000 from 2013 to 2022 across the Region, only 72% of those infected are aware of their status and only 63% receive lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. Only 5 of the 53 Member States in the Region meet the target of having 90% of HIV-positive cases on treatment. <\/p>\n<h3>A lifetime of good health<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThe European Health Report\u2019s great value is demonstrating health linkages across the entire lifecycle. Protecting and improving child health provides dividends throughout a person\u2019s life while reducing the cost to society,\u201d noted Dr Kluge. \u201cA healthy child is more likely to grow into a healthy adolescent, a healthy adult and a healthy older person. This couldn\u2019t be more crucial because for the first time ever, there are more people aged over 65 years than under 15 years in the European Region.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Dementia is one of the leading causes of dependency and disability among older people. Over the past few decades there has been a stark increase in the proportion of deaths caused by Alzheimer disease and other dementias. In 2019, dementia affected more than 14 million people in the Region, and the prevalence is expected to double by 2030. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs financial and human resources are increasingly strained, accessing health care becomes more difficult,\u201d explained Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO\/Europe. \u201cThis particularly impacts low-income households. Across our 53 Member States, the proportion of households experiencing catastrophic health spending ranges from under 1% to over 21%. In 25 Member States an estimated 5% of households experience catastrophic health spending, meaning health-care costs prevent them from meeting other basic needs like food and energy. Ensuring a lifetime of good health means investing strategically in health systems to ensure that coverage is genuinely universal.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n<h3>A roadmap and call to action\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>WHO\/Europe has embarked on a comprehensive consultative process with all 53 Member States to chart priorities and actions over the next 5 years, using the European Health Report as a key evidence-base to guide the discussions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The second European Programme of Work will be adopted by Member States at a session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in late October. There is widespread consensus on a number of pressing health challenges including mental health, NCDs, health security, violence against women and girls, and the health impacts of climate change. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis report \u2013 published every 3 years \u2013 is what WHO does best: transforming raw numbers from massive datasets into actionable insights, identifying trends, uncovering risks and guiding smart policy decisions,\u201d concluded Dr Kluge. \u201cAt a time of increasing social and political polarization including on health, the European Health Report equips governments with the evidence and knowledge they need to act fast to bring about sound health policies, build resilient health systems, safeguard lives and in the process strengthen the very fabric of society. We can, and must, do better in working quickly towards health for all.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/europe\/news-room\/25-02-2025-from-cradle-to-cane--who-s-new-european-health-report-warns-of-lifelong-health-crises-across-the-region\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite progress in some areas, the WHO European Region \u2013 long reputed to have some of the world\u2019s strongest health systems \u2013 is largely stagnating or even backsliding on a range of indicators from child and adolescent health to chronic diseases. That is the thrust of WHO\u2019s latest European Health Report, drawing upon the most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","th-blog blog-single has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muskaanhospital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}