Review of Health Trends in 2014 and 2015 Projections

Abstract

The editors of World Medical & Health Policy would like to welcome you to this first 2015 issue and thank you for your past contributions. We continue to receive an increasing number of manuscripts, and hope that our readers, peer reviewers, and editors will continue to submit their research to our journal. In retrospect, 2014 was a year of many breakthroughs and advances in biomedicine and global health. Even with persisting shortages of skilled health workers, the number of deaths among children continues to decline. New cases of HIV and tuberculosis infections are dropping. Globally, homicide rates are decreasing. Modest gains in reducing the incidence of healthcare associated/acquired infections are being achieved. Access to better sanitation and potable water is improving, and the rate of malnutrition is declining. Violence against women and children is on the rise. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in four children, and one in six girls, are physically and sexually abused; one in three women are at risk of falling victim to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence. The 2014–2015 season influenza vaccine does not match the genetically drifted strain of AH3N2 (A/Switzerland/9715293) virus. The correct virus strains, based on the WHO recommendations, were included in the Southern Hemisphere vaccine, but not for the Northern Hemisphere vaccines. H3N2 viruses were predominant during the 2003–2004, 2007–2008, and 2012–2013 seasons. All three seasons had high mortality levels. As of January 2015, WHO reports increasing influenza activity in the Northern Hemisphere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports high activity of influenza in 43 states in the United States, with a number of patient loads similar to the peak of the 2012–2013 season. The Ebola virus disease (EVD) was first described in 1976. Multiple small outbreaks have occured since then. By the end of 2013, bats were implicated in the transmission of Ebola virus (EV) to people in Guinea, West Africa. In January 2015, EVD infected more than 20,000 individuals, primarily in West African countries, with few documented or suspected cases worldwide. Mortality estimates for the West African countries reached more than 8,000, or about 40% to 49% of all cases. Flight restrictions, passenger checkpoints, and quarantines or isolation are being enforced to different degrees in many countries even though, for example, a recent statement by the United Nation's Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, contested the controversial quarantine policies of New York and New Jersey in the United States as not being supported by scientific evidence. Current confusing EVD risk communications, re-interpretations by media outlets, and changing policies and standards of infection control all play a significant role in creating an environment of public mistrust in public health systems. These challenges continue to remind us of resource shortages plaguing the medical and health-care infrastructure, and the health-care workforce's ability to conduct surveillance, identify risks, and respond to many new environmental and biosecurity problems threatening communities' health and well-being. EVD is now receiving resources necessary to fight the disease, educate communities, address the environment and wild life zoonoses, and rebuild the health-care infrastructure in affected countries. In December 2014, Ministers of Health and Finance of Ebola-affected countries, and international partners, outlined a plan on how to fight EVD. Sustaining this effort is important and requires continued support even during economic hardships. Such examples showcase nations mobilizing to address health problems when crises develop. Current models of governmental and public health practices are based on outdated notions not suitable for epidemics and pandemics interventions in the twenty-first century. New, more effective models and methods must be developed, supported by robust global medical and public health systems. We hope that in 2015 policymakers and stakeholders will strive to address pressing problems facing nations' health using modern information-technology tools, synthetic biology, and the ever expanding biomedical knowledge base to address modern health challenges and threats rapidly, ethically, effectively, and economically.