The state of
public health in Asia
We often hear complaints and litanies about how our lives are
deteriorating and how our health condition is getting more “critical.” Are
there solid basis for these statements aside from the subjective observations
and emotional sentiment attached to them?
Let us check some health data and see how valid or
invalid those observations are. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has a good
compilation of social and economic data spanning for two decades or more,
so we can see a trend of improvement or
deterioration of the social and economic lives of Asians.
Below, mortality or
rate of death among the young, infants and children below five years old.
There have been drastic improvements in the health
condition of young Asians. Mortality
rate for both infants and under five years old in just 22 years were slashed by
half in India and Pakistan, and by one-third in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. A
great achievement.
The same trend of drastic reduction in mortality rate for
the young is observed in South East Asian countries. In the case of developed
economies like Singapore, S. Korea and Japan, the already low figures have further gone down.
In the past, tuberculosis (TB) was a major killer
infectious disease in many countries in
the developing world. Drugs and
treatment against various bacteria that cause and spread the disease were not
so developed, and the system of isolation for infected people and proper
hygiene for the rest were also not
well-developed.
Consistent with the trend and data in the above table, death rates from
tuberculosis have also significantly gone down after 22 years, slashed by half
in Nepal, Pakistan and India. Bhutan made very significant progress
here. Sri Lanka has an excellent record, comparable to the developed Asian
economies like Singapore and Japan.
The same trend is observed among South East Asian
countries. Cambodia showed good improvement but its death rate from this
disease remains very high, 3x that of Nepal, India and Vietnam.
So if less people are dying, that means the average life
span of Asians as well as other people in the world is rising, right?
The numbers below confirm this. Many countries in South
Asia showed significant improvement here, life span rose by an average of 14 years after 22 years. For the
people in South East Asia, the increase in life span has increased by an average of five years. But in the case of
Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, the harsh dictatorship and even genocide they
experienced meant very low life span in the 1970s, 80s up to 1990. Diseases plus
political murders have cut short the lives of millions of people there until
the 80s.
The three tables and sets of data above have shown that the pessimistic and emotional view that
“our lives are deteriorating, public health is in critical condition” has no
basis. Our lives are improving, we are living healthier and longer. And that
means we now have longer productive years. Instead of dying at age of late 50s
or early 60s, many people now remain productive even in their late 60s or 70s,
are able to enjoy the company of their grand children much longer.
While some sectors will give high credit to government
investments in public health, they sometimes
fail to notice or mention the role of healthcare competition among
private healthcare providers – hospitals, clinics, drugstores, drug manufacturers,
physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals.
Governments in Asia and other parts of the world should
recognize the role of healthcare competition among private players and
professionals. The goal is longer life span for
the people, few people dying from infectious diseases, and not more
government hospitals per se.
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See also:
Business 360--23: Electricity and Development, March 07, 2015
Business 360-24: Reducing Construction and Electricity Permits, April 08, 2015
Business 360-25, Economic Liberalization and GDP Expansion, June 23, 2015
Business 360--26, Nepal earthquake and lessons from it, July 13, 2015
UHC 26: Public and Private Spending on Health, January 31, 2015
UHC 27: Paranoia on Healthcare Corporatization and Privatization, April 06, 2015
UHC 28: Health Pessimism Despite Improving Public Health, April 20, 2015
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