Commentaries

De acuerdo con las estimaciones de IHME, se registran al 31 de diciembre de 2020 1.9 millones de muertes por Covid-19 y se estima que durante 2021 se registrarán 3.6 millones de muertes más, lo que arroja un total de 5.5 millones de muertes por la pandemia en 2 años. Queda claro que los daños letales de la pandemia en el mundo fueron casi el doble en 2021 en comparación con 2020.

In the U.S., over 17,000 children have been hospitalized, over 4,000 have suffered from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome and more than 400 have died due to COVID-19. Vaccines — our most effective tool — aim to protect vaccinated individuals but also those who cannot be vaccinated, including children under the age of 12. This works by building a “wall” of immunized individuals around these groups — what we call herd immunity.

So far, we have failed.

The COVID-19 crisis is far from over; in many countries, it is getting worse. By investing in digital technologies now and publishing anonymized data online, policymakers can strengthen their response to the ongoing pandemic, and act quickly when another public-health threat appears.

With an excess of COVID-19 vaccines in high-income settings, leaders of those countries should act on their promises to send surplus doses to countries where vaccines remain scarce. 

Will SARS-CoV-2 become a recurrent seasonal infection?

Although the attention of the world and the global health community specifically is deservedly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, other determinants of health continue to have large impacts and may also interact with COVID-19. Air pollution is one crucial example. 

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Life is like a parachute jump; you’ve got to get it right the first time.” With a spate of Covid-19 vaccines on the horizon, we must prepare to jump.

Since March, federal agencies have been collecting a trove of information. But they refuse to release most of it.

GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3·5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) introduces Think Global Health, a multi-contributor website that examines how changes in health are reshaping economies, societies, and the everyday lives of people around the world.

Regular monitoring of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals is important for fostering a shared notion of accountability for results, identifying important gaps in resources and rates of progress, and taking into account emerging challenges that can influence the trajectory of progress.

Hans Rosling — a Swedish doctor, statistician, author and professor — will be a name associated with the University of Washington’s transformative work in population health. Today, the UW Board of Regents approved naming the $230 million building under construction on UW’s Seattle campus the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health.

The decline in child mortality over the past two decades has been described as the greatest story in global public health. Indeed, using modern tools and interventions, there has been remarkable progress, reducing deaths in children <5 y of age by nearly half from 2000 to 2017.

Large-scale analysis of 49 countries in Africa shows improvements in the prevalence of babies under 6 months of age being fed only breast milk, but there are large disparities in progress across and within countries.

In 2015, member states of the United Nations adopted the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included 17 global goals that targeted economic and social development. Goal 3, “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” targets specifically marked progress in universal health coverage; improved access to safe, effective, and affordable medicines; and the end of the HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis epidemics by 2030. Although these goals can spur innovation, social and political commitment, and a drive to achieve greater health gains for less money, financial support is necessary to achieve them. 

The Lancet details the Roux Prize award winner for 2018, Dr. Cynthia Maung. Dr. Maung and her staff at the Mae Tao Clinic on the border of Thailand and Myanmar have collected data over the years to identify what is driving people's illnesses, disabilities, and injuries and how to improve delivery of care.

Professor Alan Lopez and IHME Director Christopher Murray awarded Gairdner Global Health Award 2018 For ground-breaking work in conceptualizing and quantifying the Global Burden of Disease.

Last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published two studies revealing health and education disparities on the African continent. What is significant about these studies is not only the results, but also the process that was used to arrive at them, known as “precision mapping.” With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHME is mapping a range of global health metrics using 5x5 kilometer units.

Progress in the fight against hunger is patchy. New tools must target action to those who are most vulnerable, says Kofi Annan.

This year's Roux Prize was awarded to Samba Sow for using health data to save children's lives through a comprehensive vaccination programme. Andrew Green with The Lancet reports.

Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses his experience at the Global Burden of Disease 20th Anniversary Symposium. 

The Lancet Infectious Diseases profiles IHME Director of Geospatial Science Dr. Simon Hays. 

Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data is the foundation’s first annual progress report on the SDGs and was produced in partnership with IHME. The Gates’ Goalkeepers report

There is approximately an 18-year difference in male life expectancy between Japan (80·5 years) and Sudan (62·4 years).1 The study by Laura Dwyer-Lindgren and colleagues2 in this issue of The Lancet Public Health shows that there is also an approximately 18-year difference in male life expectancy between the census tracts with the highest and the lowest life expectancy in King County, WA, USA.