Feb. 20, 2019

WHO GLOBAL REPORT .

More global spending on health, but people are still paying too much 

Spending on health is growing faster than the rest of the global economy, accounting for 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP). A new report on global health expenditure from WHO reveals a swift upward trajectory of global health spending.

Governments provide an average of 51% of a country’s health spending, while more than 35% of health spending per country comes from out-of-pocket expenses. One consequence of this is 100 million people pushed into extreme poverty each year. However, reliance on out-of-pocket expenses is slowly declining around the world.

WHO releases 2018 Annual Report for Syria

More than 13 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance, 5.2 million acutely so. At least 6.2 million people have been displaced, many of them more than once. Two thirds of Syrians are living under the poverty line.

In 2018, WHO monitored almost 1100 hospitals and health care centres throughout the country and delivered medicines and supplies to where they were needed most. We responded to outbreaks of acute diarrhoea and typhoid fever, hepatitis A, measles and vaccine-derived poliovirus.

Read full report