Two-thirds of the world’s population — or roughly five billion people — have no access to safe and affordable surgery, according to a new study in The Lancet. This number is more than double the number previously estimated.
In 2010, a third of all deaths — 16.9 million — were from conditions treatable with surgery, a number more than the deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
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Most of the people live in low- and middle-income countries such as people in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 93 percent of the population cannot obtain basic surgical care.
“People are dying and living with disabilities that could be avoided if they had good surgical treatment,” Andy Leather, director of the King’s Centre for Global Health and one of the study’s authors said. “Also, more and more people are being pushed into poverty trying to access surgical care.”
The study, done by 25 experts over 18 months, gathered evidence and testimony from healthcare workers and patients in more than 100 countries. The research considered whether people can travel to facilities within two hours for surgery, whether the surgery will be safe and whether the patients can afford the surgeries.
According to the study, just one in 20 surgeries occur in the poorest countries — where over a third of the world’s population lives. Though roughly 313 surgical operations occur globally each year, there is a global shortfall of at least 143 surgeries annually.
(h/t BBC)
