Health
6 in 7 people worldwide plagued by feelings of insecurity – UNDP
People’s sense of safety and security is at a low in almost every country, with six in seven worldwide plagued by feelings of insecurity, according to new data and analysis by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) published on Tuesday.
Even citizens living in countries that enjoy some of the highest levels of good health, wealth, and education outcomes are reporting even greater anxiety than a decade ago.
“Despite global wealth being higher than ever before, a majority of people are feeling apprehensive about the future and these feelings have likely been exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Achim Steiner, the UNDP Administrator.
“In our quest for unbridled economic growth, we continue to destroy our natural world while inequalities are widening, both within and between countries.
“It is time to recognise the signs of societies that are under immense stress and redefine what progress actually means.”
The report, “New Threats to Human Security in the Anthropocene“, calls for greater solidarity across borders to tackle the disconnect between development and perceived security.
UNDP also advocates a new approach to development that it hopes will help people to live free from want, fear, anxiety, and indignity.
“We need a fit-for-purpose development model that is built around the protection and restoration our of planet with new sustainable opportunities for all,” Steiner said.
UNDP first introduced the concept of human security in its landmark Human Development Report, issued in 1994.
The study signalled a radical departure from the idea that people’s security should be assessed by looking only at territorial security and instead should take into account their basic needs, dignity and safety, to live secure lives.
UNDP believes the imperative to act now has never been clearer.
For a second consecutive year, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven down global life expectancy at birth, as well as other measures of overall human development.
Climate change is also likely to become a leading cause of death worldwide, the authors warn, and could be responsible for 40 million deaths before the end of the century, even with moderate mitigation of emissions.
The report further examines other threats that have become more prominent in recent years, including those from digital technologies, growing inequalities, conflicts, and the ability of healthcare systems to tackle new challenges like the pandemic.
The authors argue that addressing these threats will require policy makers to consider protection, empowerment, and solidarity alongside one another so that human security, planetary considerations and human development, all work together and not despite each other.
Asako Okai, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Crisis Bureau, said the report highlights the need to build a greater sense of global solidarity based on the idea of common security.
“Common security recognises that a community can only be secure if adjacent communities are too,” she explained.
“This is something we see all too clearly with the current pandemic: nations are largely powerless to prevent new mutations of this coronavirus from crossing borders.”
The report further points to the strong association between declining levels of trust and feelings of insecurity. People with higher levels of perceived human insecurity are three times less likely to find others trustworthy.
Among the other findings is the widening gaps in healthcare systems between countries.
The report includes a new index which reveals that between 1995 and 2017, inequality in healthcare performance worsened between countries with low and very high human development. (NAN)
Health
Psychiatrists Demand Decriminalization of Attempted Suicide
By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN) President, Prof. Taiwo James Obindo, has asked for the decriminalization of attempted suicide in the country.
He made the call at a stakeholders meeting organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Specialty Healthcare on the need to prioritize and implement the Mental Health Act.
Obindo said the establishment of the National Counselling Centers all over the country in an attempt to address mental health was like putting the cart before the horse, because suicide attempt was still a criminal offense in both the Criminal Act and the Penal Code.
“Hence the first step would be a move to decriminalize attempted suicide.
Criminalizing attempted Suicide has proven to be a major barrier for suicide prevention intervention service uptake.“The archaic law, inherited from our Colonial masters, in an attempt to stop the act of suicide did not address the thoughts and social determinants of Suicide. Significant evidence showed that 90% of those who take their lives through suicide had a background history of Mental Health Conditions; out of which 80% are attributable to Depression due to various bio-psycho-social aetiologies.
“Why do we, as a Nation, then punish individuals who are ill and need medical attention rather than prosecution? It will shock you to know that Nigeria, the giant of Africa, is lagging behind as quite a number of our neighbouring nations have abrogated that law.
“Establishing a Counselling center, without abrogating this archaic law would put, even the counselors at risk because the law also prescribes penalties for those who are aware of the plan but did not report,” he said.
The psychiatrists Association President called for the implementation of the Mental Health Act, which he said was a product of legislation that went through rigorous processes by the legislature, assented to by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2022, and has been gazetted as a law in the Country.
This, he said, would address the “many years of neglect of this important aspect of our nationhood.”
Obindo said a requirement for the effective implementation of the Act was the establishment of a Mental Health Services Department in the Federal Ministry of Health.
“It will shock you to hear that, more than a year later, the department is yet to be established. Most of, if not all, the items in your plan are meant to be supervised by this department in obedience to the rule of law! Hence, the establishment of the department is germane to the success of all your plans,” he said.
He said the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria was an umbrella body of all Psychiatrists in the Country and other allied Practitioners.
He said they have been at the forefront of campaigns and advocacy for global best practices.
He lauded the Committee for the initiative, saying when well-implemented, would positively impact the hitherto neglected Mental Health, persons affected by Mental Health Conditions, and Mental Health Practitioners.
Chairman of the Committee on Special Healthcare, Dr Alex Egbona, said all stakeholders must partner to address mental health challenges and other related health cases.
The lawmaker said the committee was created to provide the requisite legislative frameworks for improved healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
He said the session was a collaborative initiative of the committee to share its mandate and planned activities with identified relevant institutions and organisations.
“I, therefore, solicit the support and partnership of all stakeholders, our development partners, international NGOs, and CSOs, you are all urged to take interest in building the capacity of the committee members and staff to enhance the efficacy of the committee.
“Consider our five thematic areas of Mental Health, Trauma and Obstetrics Fistula, Oral Health and ENT, Blood Transfusion, Blood and Management, Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine and engage the committee for maximum impact,” he said.
Health
WHO Expresses Concern over Monkey Pox Outbreak in DRC
25,318 suspected cases of monkey pox, including 1,204 deaths, have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the declaration of monkey pox outbreak in December 2022.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
According to the latest report, the outbreak, which was declared by the DRC Health Ministry on Dec.
16, 2022, was prompted by a notable surge in cases and fatalities associated with monkey pox as well as a fast spread to non-endemic provinces.Since the beginning of 2024, a total of 5,133 suspected cases, including 321 deaths, have been reported, according to the WHO report. It warns that the current situation of the outbreak in the DRC is of “grave concern” due to the sustained increase in suspected cases compared to previous years.
It added that with a significant burden in younger populations, particularly children under 15 years of age, who constitute the majority of both suspected cases and deaths.
In April 2024, a high-level emergency regional meeting on monkey pox in Africa was convened in DRC capital Kinshasa, gathering 12 health ministers of regional countries, aiming to develop common strategies to prevent and intervene effectively in the face of monkey pox in Africa.
“We must prevent the DRC from becoming the source of cross-border transmission, and our partnership must prioritise the health of those affected,’’ said Jean Kaseya, the director general of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) at the meeting.
“Over the years, monkey pox has become a real public health problem for our communities in the DRC, a regional threat and ultimately a global problem.
“We must now mobilise to resolve this crisis,” said Roger Kamba, DRC minister of public health, hygiene and prevention, said at the meeting.
Monkey pox, first detected in laboratory monkeys in 1958, is assumed to be transmitted from wild animals such as rodents to people or from human to human (Xinhua/NAN)
Health
WHO Warns of ‘Bloodbath’ as Rafah Offensive Looms
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of dire consequences if Israel goes ahead with an impending military operation in Rafah.
The planned push into the southern border city of Rafah would lead to “a bloodbath,” the organization wrote on X, formerly twitter on Saturday
The WHO said that more than 1.
2 million people were currently sheltering in the area, many unable to move anywhere else.“A new wave of displacement would exacerbate overcrowding, further limiting access to food, water, health and sanitation services, leading to increased disease outbreaks, worsening levels of hunger, and additional loss of lives.
”According to the WHO, only 33 per cent of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 30 per cent of primary health care Centre’s were functional in some capacity amid repeated attacks and shortages of vital medical supplies, fuel, and staff.
WHO calls for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the removal of the obstacles to the delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance into and across Gaza, at the scale that is required.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to launch an offensive in Rafah to eliminate the remaining strongholds of Hamas.
The organisation said that although Israel’s allies have repeatedly urged caution, as a large majority of the approximately 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have fled to the south during the war. (dpa/NAN)