In its recent report entitled “World Health Day 2018 – Lessons from Malaysia on Universal Health Coverage”, WHO noted that currently, about 70% of deaths in the economically productive age group are a consequence of non-communicable diseases.
The economically productive age group is defined as people aged 15 to 64.
“The onset of such diseases is often silent. For example, about one third of those with diabetes and high blood pressure are unaware of the conditions,” it said.
The report on universal health coverage was prepared by Dr Lo Ying-Ru Jacqueline, who is the head of mission and WHO representative to Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore; and Professor Pascale A Allotey, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Global Health.
The report was released by WHO in conjunction with World Health Day today.
The WHO also noted the government’s aspirations to address the issue of non-communicable diseases under the 11th Malaysia Plan.
“The 11th Malaysia Plan aims to accelerate efforts to achieve universal access to quality healthcare by targeting underserved areas, increasing capacity of both healthcare facilities and personnel, and promoting community engagement to ensure shared responsibility for health.”
Remarkable progress in universal health coverage
On the issue of universal health coverage, WHO said Malaysia had made remarkable progress in improving health outcomes over the years.
“At the time of independence in 1957, the number of infant deaths was 75.5 per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate has since fallen by more than 90% to 6.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016.
“Maternal mortality, which refers to the death of a woman caused by her pregnancy, during and after delivery, has also decreased by 89% between 1963 to 2013,” the report said in highlighting two key indicators for how countries are rated on the healthcare they provide.
“The country had successfully eradicated smallpox in 1978, a year ahead of the WHO declaring the world smallpox free.
“In 2011, Malaysia achieved the WHO regional target on hepatitis B control through a concerted effort in its childhood vaccination programme. This achievement was six years ahead of the target date set to reduce the rate of Hepatitis B among five-year old children to 1%.”
WHO said that while Malaysia has a low incidence of catastrophic and impoverishing healthcare expenditure with less than 1% of the population spending more than 25% of their household budget for health, rising levels of non-communicable diseases out-of-pocket spending has increased steadily to around 38% of total health expenditure as of 2016.
73% of deaths caused by hypertension, diabetes, heart problems