A lot of happened in the healthcare sector this year. The year began with a major earthquake in Türkiye and Syria and it ended with the horrific war in Gaza. This year, the world also witnessed many other crises, conflicts, and the continuing threat of disease outbreaks and climate change.
The world also witnessed some positive developments. The year 2023 was a record year for disease elimination, with several countries eliminating infectious diseases.
Here are some of major developments that made headlines this year:
Outbreaks
This year saw a record-breaking resurgence of many infectious diseases – anthrax, chikungunya, cholera, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, dengue, diphtheria, influenza, RSV – that needed a coordinated regional and global response. Other outbreaks included Lassa Fever in Nigeria and Ebola disease in Uganda, as well as Marburg virus disease in Equatorial Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania.
COVID-19 and mpox
Amidst all the crises, there has also been positive news this year. In May, following the convening of the relevant Emergency Committees, WHO’s Director-General declared an end to two Public Health Emergencies of International Concern: COVID-19 and mpox, while also stating that the threats from both are not over.
“With a continued threat of COVID-19, and the looming threat of an influenza pandemic, WHO continues to expand its networks to track respiratory pathogens with pandemic potential, utilizing its Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System and CoViNet to monitor the evolution of these pathogens, conduct risk assessments, and prepare for a potential vaccine when the need arises,” WHO said in a statement.
Climate change and health
In a historic first, the organizers of COP28 hosted a dedicated health day in response to the climate-related health crisis affecting at least 3.5 billion people – nearly half of the global population. Extreme heat, weather events and air pollution caused millions of deaths in 2023, putting enormous pressure on health systems and workforce.
A new COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health was signed by over 130 countries at the UN Climate Conference. The Declaration advocates for a rapid increase in political and financial commitments, and concrete action to protect people from the devastating health impacts of the climate crisis.
Disease elimination
The year 2023 was a record year for disease elimination, with several countries eliminating infectious diseases.
In March, WHO certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan malaria-free, followed by Belize in June.
Egypt became the first country in the world to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to eliminating hepatitis C – an important milestone towards the goal of achieving full elimination of the disease before 2030. This is an astonishing turnaround for a country that had one of the world’s highest rates of hepatitis C infection less than 10 years ago, WHO stated.
As of today, 50 countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD), in line with WHO’s target of having 100 countries achieve this milestone by 2030. Ghana, Benin, Mali, Iraq, Bangladesh, and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic all eliminated neglected tropical diseases in their countries.
Delivering vaccines
As of November 2023, 72 percent of people worldwide had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with 13.6 billion doses administered around the world, preventing severe illness and hospitalizations for millions of people.
“We began to see promising signs of recovery in levels of childhood immunization after the backsliding that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in the year, global partners announced “The Big Catch-up”: a coordinated effort to reverse the declines in childhood vaccination, strengthening health systems and working towards a future where no child dies of a vaccine-preventable disease,” WHO stated.
Another important milestone during the year was WHO’s recommendation of a new vaccine for malaria prevention, providing hope to bolster malaria prevention and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in the African Region. There are now two life-saving vaccines that are safe and effective in preventing malaria in children.
A new dengue vaccine was recommended for introduction in settings with high disease burden. The new vaccine offers hope against the mosquito-transmitted infection, of which half of the world’s population is estimated to be at risk.
There was promising news in the fight against meningitis, as WHO prequalified a novel meningococcal conjugate vaccine and issued a policy for its use in the countries of the African meningitis belt, which are affected by seasonal epidemics. According to WHO, Men5CV has the potential to drastically change the fight against meningitis, as it is expected to be more affordable and accessible to countries in the meningitis belt than other available vaccines.
Non-communicable diseases
In a first, WHO released its first-ever report on the devastating global impact of high blood pressure: 1 in 3 adults are affected by the condition. The report indicated that approximately 4 out of every 5 people with hypertension are not adequately treated, but if countries can scale up coverage, 76 million deaths could be averted between 2023 and 2050.
The new WHO Global status report on road safety 2023 shows that, since 2010, the number of annual road traffic deaths has fallen by 5% to 1.19 million.
An estimated 101 million people in India were detected with diabetes, 136 million were found to be prediabetes and 315 million people from hypertension in 2021, a first-of-its-kind study by ICMR-INDIAB, which measured the prevalence of metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India.