Annually, the World Health Organization, a UN specialized agency concerned with international public health, is back with a series of numbers, indices and information regarding the health situation in several countries around the world. For the 2017 edition of the World Health Statistics, the organization brought together reliable data about 194 nations linked to their progress towards the health-related sustainable development goals.
The organization, based on 1,000 health indicators points out that maternal mortality has reached in 2015 121 per 100,000 live births while child mortality was around 27.6 per 1,000 live births in Morocco. The report which was released on the 17 th of May, also provides figures on New HIV infections among adults aged 15-49 years old, claiming that 0.07 per 1,000 Moroccans have been diagnosed with AIDS.
Compared to neighboring countries, the suicide mortality rate is around 4.8 per 100,000 Moroccans while it is only 3.1 in Algeria and 2.6 in Egypt. On the other hand, 74% of births in the country were delivered by skilled health personnel between 2005 and 2015 and 99% of infants received three doses of hepatitis B vaccine during the same year.
Morocco spent 6% of its governmental expenditure on the health sector in 2014
The statistics include also the road traffic mortality figures, stating that in 2013, 20.8 per 100,000 Moroccans died in car accidents. According to the World Health statistics, Morocco spent 6% of its government general expenditure in 2014 the health sector.
The 2017 UN report however highlights the progress that the statistics foreshadow. According to a press release with an overview about the survey : «new data from WHO show, highlighting improvements countries have made on collecting vital statistics and monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals».
The same source states that positive results have marked the recent years regarding health and mortality in 194 nations. «Several countries have made significant strides towards strengthening the data they collect, including China, Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran, where 90% of deaths are now recorded with detailed cause-of-death information, compared with 5% in 1999», the organisation’s communiqué explains.
The organization, throughout this report is working on promoting the health sector in the world and securing access to services and health coverage.