The World Health Organization said, in a report issued today, Friday in Geneva, that the world is facing a huge and complex problem represented by the double burden of malnutrition, where undernutrition coexists with overweight and obesity.
The report indicated that more than a billion people aged five years and above were suffering from obesity in 2022, while more than half a billion people were underweight, and malnutrition among children was also striking, as 148 million children under the age of A fifth is stunted (too short for age), 45 million children suffer from wasting (too thin for height), and 37 million children are overweight.
On the other hand, the report confirmed that non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancers, obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and diabetes remain the number one killer.
The report explained that these were among the biggest killer diseases before the Covid-19 (Corona) pandemic and were responsible for 74% of all deaths in 2018, and in 2019, even during the pandemic, non-communicable diseases remained 78% of deaths not related to Covid-19.
The report indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic reversed the trend of a steady increase in life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth, and that the Corona epidemic eliminated nearly a decade of progress in improving life expectancy in just two years.
The report stated that the average life expectancy decreased between 2019 and 2021 in the world by 1.8 years, reaching 71.4 years (returning to the level of 2012). Likewise, the average healthy life expectancy in the world decreased by 1.5 years, reaching 61.9 years in 2021 (returning to the level of 2012). level in 2012).
The report indicated that the Corona virus quickly emerged as a major cause of death, as it ranked third in terms of the highest cause of death in the world in 2020 and second in 2021, as nearly 13 million people lost their lives during this period.
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