世界卫生状况英文报告(1)

ries life expectancy at birth is expected to  decrease by the year 2000, whereas everywhere else it is increasing. In the richest countries life expectancy in the year 2000 will reach 79  years. In some of the poorest it will go backwards to 42 years. Thus  the gap continues to widen between rich and poor, and by the year 2000  at least 45 countries are expected to have alife expectancy at birth of  under 60 years.

　　In the space of a day passengers flying from Japan to Uganda leave the country with the world s highest life expectancy - almost 79 years - and land in one with the world s lowest - barely 42 years. A day away by plane, but half a lifetime s difference on the ground. A flight between France and C?te d'Ivoire takes only a few hours, but it spans almost 26 years of life expectancy. A short air trip between Florida in the USA and Haiti represents a life expectancy gap of over 19 years.

　　The purpose of the report is to highlight such inequities and to tackle the wider question: what are the global health priorities? It also tries to answer other crucially important questions. Which are the major diseases, the major causes of death, handicap, disability and diminution of the quality of life? Which conditions cause most misery, although they may  not be fatal? Which countries, or communities within countries, have the greatest health needs? Where should health resources be targeted?

　　The report, for the first time, has attempted to examine the burden of ill-health not just by disease, but also by age, as the impact of illness differs across the age spectrum. Where possible, the analysis of health status has been carried out for infants and children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. On the basis of the data available and considered to be reasonably reliable, ten leading causes of death, illness and disability have been identified. There is also an explanation of what WHO is doing to bridge the gaps in health, an attempt to assess health trends in the coming years, and an effort to chart a health future for mankind - a future in which a baby lives, not dies, in its mother's arms.

　　Child health

　　The number of children under 5 years who died in 1993 - more than 12.2 million - equals the entire populations of Norway and Sweden combined. Of such deaths in the developing world, the great majority could have been avoided if those countries enjoyed the same health and social conditions as the world s most developed nations. The gap between the developed and  the developing world in terms of infant and child survival is one of the starkest examples of health inequity.

　　The estimated global figure for mortality among children under 5 years in 1993 was 87 per 1 000 live births, an encouraging fall from rates of 215 during the period 1950-1955 and of 115 in 1980. Yet in parts of the developed world only 6 out of 1 000 liveborns die before reaching age 5, whereas in 16 of th

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