DID YOU KNOW?
- Patent evergreening is a strategy used by companies to keep the prices high as it would keep the affordably priced generic versions of the drug out of the market.
- Psoriasis is a chronic auto-immune disorder of the skin in which prolonged inflammation leads to dry, thick, raised, red patches on the skin that continuously shed silvery scales.
- Retinopathy of prematurity is a leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide.
- The majority of people with vision impairment and blindness are over the age of 50 years; however, vision loss can affect people of all ages.
- Ambient (outdoor air pollution) in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016.
- The abilities and needs of autistic people vary and can evolve over time. While some people with autism can live independently, others have severe disabilities and require life-long care and support.
- Globally birth defects cause 170 000 deaths of children between the ages of 1 month and 5 years.
- Cancer-causing infections, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis, are responsible for approximately 30% of cancer cases in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
- In high-income countries, where comprehensive services are generally accessible, more than 80% of children with cancer are cured. In low- and middle-income countries, less than 30% are cured.
- The direct damage costs to health due to climate change (i.e. excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between USD 2-4 billion/year by 2030.
- Malnutrition, in all its forms, includes undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight), inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, obesity, and resulting diet-related noncommunicable diseases.
- Globally in 2020, 149 million children under 5 were estimated to be stunted (too short for age), 45 million were estimated to be wasted (too thin for height), and 38.9 million were overweight or obese.
- Human echinococcosis is a parasitic disease caused by tapeworms of the genus Echinococcus. More than 1 million people are affected with echinococcosis at any one time.
- Around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, making it one of the most common neurological diseases globally. Nearly 80% of people with epilepsy live in low- and middle-income countries.
- Trachoma is a disease of the eye caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Blindness from trachoma is irreversible.
- In 2019, diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes caused an estimated 2 million deaths.
- An estimated 1.3 billion people experience significant disability. This represents 16% of the world's population, or 1 in 6 of us.
