WHO calls for urgent action to tackle health inequalities in cities.
Writing
In the slums of New York or in some towns in the UK have worse access to health services, so that living less and have more diseases.
Madrid (20/22- 11 - 10).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for "urgent measures" to combat health desigualdedes in major cities of both developing and developed countries, where there are also economic and social inequalities that hinder access to health services.
Warns the latest report by the WHO and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), which for the first time shows such as poor health is related to poverty cities, not only among the urban poor.
This work reveals that there are inequities in access to health care in the urban population subgroups, depending on their economic status, their neighborhoods and other characteristics of these groups of citizens.
In this issue, point, both poor and rich countries must be vigilant. According to WHO, the inhabitants of the poorest neighborhoods of New York have poorer access to essential health services and suffer more health problems, as reflected in their life expectancy and mortality rates of HIV.
Data from Preston, UK show a similar situation. Life expectancy varies dramatically between the most deprived communities and the most affluent in Preston, with some 14.7 years apart for males and 10 years for women, add in this report.
According to WHO, inequalities in access to healthcare in cities could prevent achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the health field, because the cities are a crucial part of this equation, where she lives half the world population. In his view, the future general advances in health will depend largely on the improvements achieved in urban environments.
To address this situation, ask improve infant mortality rates in cities. While child survival in these environments is often higher in rural areas, these figures hide, according to WHO, the substantial inequalities between different population groups.
Poorest children living in cities are twice as likely as the richest of dying before their fifth birthday. Not only are large inequities between rich and poor citizens, but in the entire urban population, says the WHO, which calls for efforts to reduce inequities be addressed to the general population, rather than focusing only on the poorest groups.
Another neglected health issues in cities is skilled attendance at delivery, crucial to avoid complications that can cause death of the mother or the child and to improve the health of all people.
In urban areas of 44 low-income countries and media coverage for skilled care at birth varies from 40 to 100 percent. These results indicate that levels of household wealth and education of mothers and their partners have a strong impact on inequities in the coverage highlights.
The report stands as another major deficiency, differences in access to drinking water. Although access to safe water has improved globally during the past two decades, there remain substantial inequalities between the richest and the poorest urban dwellers in Africa, America and Asia, says the WHO, which says there important social differences.
The incidence rates of tuberculosis are also a problem to solve, reflecting inequities in access to health not only in developing countries, also in developed countries like Japan.
TB is most common in Japan than in other developed countries, according to the report, which also stresses that the city of Osaka has an incidence rate nine times higher than areas with less tuberculosis. This paper shows that TB rates reflect social and economic disadvantage.
For the director of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, the averages hide large pockets of inequality and poor health. This new analysis reveals the differences in access to health and medical care that exist in urban populations and shows where they should focus their efforts, the city authorities.
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