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<\/a><\/p>\nAs the above chart shows, the global number of deaths being reported weekly to the World Health Organization (WHO) is trending downward from a spike in January, even though cases are still rising.<\/p>\n
Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO\u2019s emergencies head, explained: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing clinical case fatality rates slowly drop, we\u2019re seeing doctors and nurses making better use of oxygen, better use of intensive care, better use of dexamethasone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he also warned\u00a0the death toll could \u201csadly very likely\u201d double to two million\u00a0unless governments \u201cdo what it takes to avoid that number\u201d.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0true death toll may be higher\u00a0because cases and deaths are recorded differently in each country and testing is happening sporadically in some regions.<\/p>\n
What kills the most people each year?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to know exactly how deadly Covid-19 is due to lack of accurate data. Case-fatality ratios have been crudely calculated as anything from less than 0.1% to over 25% between countries, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n However, you are still much more likely to die from non-communicable diseases \u2013 those that are not transmitted between people.<\/p>\n According to Our World in Data, 56 million people died in 2017. Of these,\u00a0nearly half (49%) were over 70 years old; only 1% were older than five and younger than 14; and almost 10% were children under the age of five.<\/p>\n The biggest killer by far was\u00a0cardiovascular disease\u00a0(CVD) \u2013 responsible for more than 17 million deaths, or around a third of all deaths that year.<\/p>\n Of those deaths, 85% were due to heart attack and stroke, and three-quarters were in low and middle-income countries, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n Cancers killed more than 9.5 million people, or around one in six people, making it the\u00a0second leading cause of death in the world. The WHO says around 70% of those who die of cancer are in low to middle-income countries.<\/p>\n The third leading cause of death globally is the group of\u00a0respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, occupational lung diseases and pulmonary hypertension, which together are responsible for more than three million deaths.<\/p>\n Road traffic accidents still kill more than a million people\u00a0each year, costing most countries 3% of their GDP and are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged five to 29, says the WHO.<\/p>\n Causes of death vary over time and space<\/strong><\/p>\n The leading cause of death can vary widely by country \u2013 in\u00a0Botswana and South Africa, in 2017, it was HIV\/Aids, whereas CVD is the leading cause of death in many high-income countries.<\/p>\n Globally, in the 16 years between 2000 and 2016, the group classed as communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional conditions \u2013 including HIV\/Aids, diarrhoeal diseases and preterm birth complications \u2013 caused fewer deaths, with some dropping out of the top 10 altogether, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n This coincides with global efforts to fight infectious diseases and other causes in this group \u2013 such as the\u00a0WHO\u2019s 2012 Born Too Soon\u00a0report with antenatal guidelines to reduce the risk of preterm birth.<\/p>\n But, our ability to prevent other diseases and causes of death has been put under strain by the enormous pressure Covid-19 has put on the world\u2019s health systems.<\/p>\n In one example, the charity Cancer Research UK estimated in June that two million patients were waiting for\u00a0cancer treatments, tests and screening.<\/p>\n The Lancet estimated a\u00a07.9 to 9.6% increase in breast cancer deaths\u00a0up to five years after diagnosis, compared with pre-pandemic figures, while the figure for colorectal cancer was a 15.3-16.6% increase.<\/p>\n The pandemic has also set back progress on eradicating infectious diseases, as it has disrupted immunization programmes in at least 68 countries since March.<\/p>\n Around\u00a080 million children under the age of one are thought to be at greater risk of diseases\u00a0such as measles.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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