In 2023, we celebrated 75 years of the World Health Organization (WHO). It was a year to reflect on 75 years of global health achievements, while facing the multiple and complex challenges affecting our health today.
This milestone anniversary served as a powerful reminder of how working together in global solidarity has enabled us to rise to complex challenges in the past, and will continue to do so in the future.
Working together for Health for All
Despite multiple health-related crises, there were many reasons for hope in 2023.
Although faced with record numbers of climate-related health challenges, and crises from new and expanding conflicts, millions of health and care workers continued striving: to protect more people from illness and suffering, to build resilience and preparedness in an increasingly turbulent world, to achieve a common goal: to give everyone everywhere the best possible chance at a safe and healthy life.
Here are just some of the global health highlights that offered hope in 2023.
General view of a meeting of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, which was held in the Opera House of San Francisco, 1945
Public health milestones through the years
Eliminating diseases
The year 2023 was a record year for disease elimination, with several countries eliminating infectious diseases thanks to dedicated national efforts, and collaborative action by countries and health partners worldwide.
In March, WHO certified Azerbaijan and Tajikistan malaria-free, followed by Belize in June. Malaria affects some of the world’s most vulnerable people, and these extraordinary achievements demonstrate how a malaria-free future can become a reality.
Egypt became the first country in the world to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to eliminate hepatitis C – an important milestone towards the goal of achieving full elimination of the disease before 2030. This is an astonishing turnaround for a country that had one of the world’s highest rates of hepatitis C infection less than 10 years ago.
As of today, 50 countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD), in line with WHO’s ambitious target of having 100 countries achieve this milestone by 2030.
In January, Ghana eliminated gambiense Human African trypanosomiasis, a life-threatening sleeping sickness transmitted by tsetse flies that causes significant harm in rural populations living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
In May Benin and Mali eliminated trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. They were the fifth and sixth countries in Africa to achieve this significant milestone, joined by Iraq from the Eastern Mediterranean region in July.
Bangladesh and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic successfully eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a public health concern. Lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, is a debilitating parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
Bangladesh made history as the first country to eliminate two NTDs in the same year. In a historic achievement, Bangladesh also became the first country in the world to be officially validated for having eliminated kala-azar. Kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis) is a life-threatening disease transmitted by sandflies which, if left untreated, can prove fatal in over 95% of cases.
Delivering vaccines
On 5 May 2023, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared COVID-19 over as a global health emergency. He emphasized that this announcement did not mean that COVID-19 was no longer a global health threat, rather that it was time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases.
In his announcement, the Director-General recognized the innovation of vaccine researchers and developers, the tough decisions governments had to make, and the incredible skill and selfless dedication of health and care workers. As of November 2023, 72% of people worldwide had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with 13.6 billion doses administered around the world, preventing severe illness and hospitalizations for millions of people.
We began to see promising signs of recovery in levels of childhood immunization after the backsliding that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in the year, global partners announced “The Big Catch-up”: a coordinated effort to reverse the declines in childhood vaccination, strengthening health systems and working towards a future where no child dies of a vaccine-preventable disease.
Another important milestone during the year was WHO’s recommendation of a new vaccine for malaria prevention, providing hope to bolster malaria prevention and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in the African Region. There are now two life-saving vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children.
In addition, a new dengue vaccine was recommended for introduction in settings with high disease burden. The new vaccine offers hope against the mosquito-transmitted infection, of which half of the world’s population is estimated to be at risk.
Meanwhile, there was promising news in the fight against meningitis, as WHO prequalified a novel meningococcal conjugate vaccine and issued a policy for its use in the countries of the African meningitis belt, which are affected by seasonal epidemics. Men5CV has the potential to drastically change the fight against meningitis, as it is expected to be more affordable and accessible to countries in the meningitis belt than other available vaccines.
