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More than a million people have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, in the nine months since the first cases were reported in China.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it an “agonizing milestone,” and Reuters calculated that it equates to one person dying every 16 seconds.
Although the pandemic has spread to 188 countries or regions, the five with the most deaths represent more than half of the world total (562,139): the United States (205,070), Brazil (142,058), India (96,318), Mexico (76,603) and the United Kingdom (42,090).
As the graph above shows, the global number of deaths reported weekly to the World Health Organization (WHO) is trending down from a peak in January, although cases continue to rise.
Dr Mike Ryan, WHO chief of emergencies, explained: “We are seeing clinical fatality rates slowly decrease, we are seeing doctors and nurses make better use of oxygen, better use of intensive care, better use of dexamethasone “.
But he also warned that the death toll could “sadly most likely” double to two million unless governments “do whatever it takes to avoid that number.”
The actual number of deaths may be higher because cases and deaths are recorded differently in each country and testing is done sporadically in some regions.
What kills more people each year?
It is difficult to know exactly how deadly Covid-19 is due to a lack of accurate data. Case fatality rates have been crudely calculated as anything from less than 0.1% to more than 25% between countries, according to the WHO.
However, you are much more likely to die from noncommunicable diseases, those that are not transmitted from person to person.
According to Our World in Data, 56 million people died in 2017. Of these, almost half (49%) were over 70 years old; only 1% were over five years old and under 14; and almost 10% were children under the age of five.
By far the leading cause of death was cardiovascular disease (CVD), responsible for more than 17 million deaths, or about a third of all deaths that year.
Of those deaths, 85% were due to heart attacks and strokes, and three-quarters occurred in low- and middle-income countries, according to the WHO.
Cancers killed more than 9.5 million people, or about one in six people, making it the second leading cause of death in the world. The WHO says that about 70% of those who die from cancer are in low- to middle-income countries.
The third leading cause of death worldwide is the group of respiratory diseases, which include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, occupational lung diseases and pulmonary hypertension, which together are responsible for more than three million deaths.
Traffic accidents still kill more than a million people each year, costing most countries 3% of their GDP and are the leading cause of death for children and young adults between the ages of five and 29. says the WHO.
The causes of death vary with time and space.
The leading cause of death can vary widely by country: in Botswana and South Africa, in 2017, it was HIV / AIDS, while cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in many high-income countries.
Globally, in the 16 years between 2000 and 2016, the group classified as communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases, including HIV / AIDS, diarrheal diseases and complications of preterm birth, caused fewer deaths, and some dropped out. the top 10 completely. According to WHO.
This is in line with global efforts to combat infectious diseases and other causes in this group, such as the WHO Born Too Soon 2012 report with prenatal guidelines to reduce the risk of preterm birth.
But our ability to prevent other diseases and causes of death has come under pressure from the enormous pressure that Covid-19 has placed on the world’s health systems.
In one example, the Cancer Research UK charity estimated in June that two million patients were waiting for cancer treatments, tests and screenings.
The Lancet estimated a 7.9% to 9.6% increase in deaths from breast cancer up to five years after diagnosis, compared to pre-pandemic figures, while the figure for colorectal cancer was a 15.3% increase at 16.6%.
The pandemic has also slowed progress in eradicating infectious diseases, as it has disrupted immunization programs in at least 68 countries since March.
Around 80 million children under the age of one are believed to be at increased risk for diseases such as measles.
- Written by Kate Whiting, Senior Writer, Educational Content at the World Economic Forum.
- This article first appeared on the World Economic Forum website. You can read the original article here.
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