Ladies and Gentlemen
Global partners, Colleagues and friends
I am very pleased to be addressing you today as we launch our joint biennial publication “Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2024”.
This edition is a timely and insightful update on the state of our progress for over 50 health and health-related indicators linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the post pandemic years.
On a personal note, I am extremely happy to see its focus on the urgent need to tackle the high burden of mental, neurological and substance use disorders, and self-harm.
There are two aspects of the key findings I would like to highlight.
The first relates to years lived with disability – or YLDs, and the second is the burden of childhood behaviour disorders.
60% of the YLDs in the Asia Pacific are accounted for by depressive disorders, migraine, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia.
Epilepsy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias were the top three causes of disability due to neurological conditions. This is a stark reality in a region with an expanding aging population.
Over 90% of YLDs attributed to substance use are due to disorders related to the use of opioids, cannabis and amphetamines.
Clearly there is an urgent need to re-orient mental health care to compassionate, community-based, person-centred, timely, accessible and affordable forms of care and wellbeing.
The burden of childhood behaviour disorders is worrying. Migraine, anxiety disorders, autism and Aspergers syndrome account for more than 70% of the YLDs in children between 5 and 14 years old.
These findings show the urgent need to protect adolescent health in the most transformative phase of human development. That period of life lays the foundation for lifelong health and well-being. Our South-East Asia Region is home to 27% of the world’s total adolescent population. I have placed the health of these 360 million young people as a priority during my term in office.
At the just concluded session of our Regional Committee, I clearly stated that adolescent-responsive health systems are about more than just treating diseases —they are about empowering a generation.
I am proud that the countries of our region adopted a Ministerial Declaration on Adolescent-Responsive Health Systems. They committed to policies, resources and services tailored to the unique needs of this age group, for a healthier and more equitable future for all.
In mid-2024, the launch of WHO Global Health Estimates (2021) showed that, regrettably, the Covid 19 pandemic – in just two years - reversed nearly a decade of progress in improving life expectancy.
In our region, life expectancy at birth dropped by 3 years and healthy life-expectancy by 2.5 years between 2019 and 2021.
The 2021 GHE also reveals the unequivocal epidemiological shift from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as the main causes of death.
NCDs, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, are now the most common causes of death in the Asia-Pacific, responsible for 23 million deaths in 2021.
WHO is proactively working with our member states to promote and support targeted and effective interventions within the region to tackle this. One such intervention is the South-East Asia-HEARTS initiative, to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases.
We also remain focused in supporting Asia Pacific countries to confront the high burden of TB, which currently stands at 45% of global TB cases.
TB remained the world’s second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent in 2022, after COVID-19, and global TB targets have either been missed or remain off track.
WHO is working closely with global health partners and ministries of health to provide full support to all commitments made during the UN high-level meeting on TB in 2023. This includes providing comprehensive care to all people with TB, addressing the crisis of drug-resistant TB, and promoting access to affordable medicines, and addressing TB during health and humanitarian emergencies.
I would like to commend this edition of Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2024, for providing us a platform to mark and celebrate our many public health gains.
The comparative analyses on specific health and programmatic outcomes show substantial and sustained progress in many different areas.
We should rightfully be proud of the gains made in reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health.
We should rightfully be proud of bolstering immunization coverage, and of strengthening health systems service capacity.
We should rightfully be proud of incorporating people’s voices for developing health systems and improving quality of care.
As I conclude, I would like to thank you all for your efforts and your partnership to promote, provide and protect the health for all our people. We have a lot of work to do, and I am pleased and proud to be doing it with you.
Thank you.