WHO report names top ten health risks
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified the ten leading health risk factors, which together account for more than a third of all deaths worldwide.
Heading the list is being underweight, followed by unsafe sex, high blood pressure, tobacco and alcohol consumption, unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, iron deficiency, indoor smoke from solid fuels, high cholesterol and obesity.
According to the report, 170m children in poor countries are underweight, which leads to 3m deaths annually. The report also says that being underweight is a contributory factor in at least 60% of all child deaths in developing countries, and it robs children of an estimated 130m years of healthy life.
In contrast more than 1bn adults are overweight, a third of whom are clinically obese. In north America and western Europe more than 500,000 people die from obesity-related diseases. Being overweight and obesity are important determinants of health and lead to adverse metabolic changes, including increases in blood pressure, unfavourable cholesterol levels, which raise the risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and many forms of cancer.
The WHO recommends that:
• governments play a stronger role in formulating risk prevention policies, including more support for scientific research and better access to global information;
• give top priority to developing effective strategies for the prevention of globally increasing high risks to health, such as tobacco consumption, unsafe sex in connection with AIDS, and obesity;
• ensure international collaboration to reduce major extraneous risks to health such as unsafe water and sanitation, and lack of education, which are likely to have a large health benefits, especially in poorer countries.
In another report, the WHO, Unicef and the World Bank warn that if urgent action is not taken to close the gaps in funding, research and global immunisation coverage, the world will see the reintroduction of old diseases and the emergence of new infections. Dr Daniel Tarantola, director of vaccines and biologicals at WHO, said: 'While new initiatives to fight killer diseases abound, it is the hard cash that is always missing.'