COVID-19 has reached all corners of the globe, leaving no country spared from the incredibly contagious sickness. It has affected almost 100 million people worldwide of all backgrounds: rich and poor, young and old, healthy and unhealthy. However, those with poor access to healthcare and insufficient funds are the most vulnerable to the illness, demonstrating the weaknesses of health systems in many countries.
Universal health coverage is crucial in combating a highly transmissible virus and preventing it from shutting down countries. Unfortunately, many countries provide this only in legislation rather than in implementation, restricting their citizens’ access to better healthcare all the more. While this has been a prevailing problem for decades, COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need for sustainable healthcare solutions, especially for countries with less developed health systems and lower incomes.
Distributing Vaccines to Equalize the Fight
The tail-end of 2020 saw the launch of many COVID-19 vaccines, which were quickly approved for emergency use. They were immediately distributed across the world, although the process itself was laden with challenges. For instance, more developed countries negotiated their access to the vaccine much faster than poorer countries. With much more resources, they could take care of the logistics challenges—particularly the vaccines’ cooling requirements—which remain a challenge for other nations.
As a result, The World Health Organization warned against the rise of “vaccine nationalism” in which richer countries can leverage their advantageous position and gain faster, more widespread access to the vaccine, leaving less developed countries behind. The unfortunate reality is that it will take several years to vaccinate the lower-income areas of the world because of the lack of resources and infrastructure to support its purchase and distribution. This scenario emphasized the need to create long-term healthcare solutions not just for the top 10 percent but for 90 percent of the world’s population.
Addressing the 10/90 Gap
Underserved areas of the world often have fewer chances of enjoying improved circumstances and better living conditions. As they don’t have reliable access to high-quality healthcare, infectious diseases continue to run rampant, increasing mortality rates further. Conversely, developed countries have drastically decreased their mortality rates from infectious diseases, with their populations succumbing to non-communicable illnesses like cancer. As such, large parts of the world do not need medical technologies aimed to treat cancer as they are still grappling with diseases like malaria.
The WHO recognized this problem and thus established the Global Health Forum in the 1990s. Its principal aim was to correct the 10/90 gap: that only 10 percent of the world’s health research and development expenses were used to study and solve 90 percent of the world’s health problems.
The healthcare industry can join the fight to rectify this gap by taking a more holistic view of the issue and reassess the kind of health solutions they are creating. Most companies are researching and implementing health solutions that benefit only the wealthiest 10 percent of the population while ignoring the other 90 percent. This large disparity can only be solved by the healthcare industry’s decision-makers, who must consider all aspects that affect health beyond legislation.
Conclusion
The healthcare industry must create solutions that offer better, more accessible medical options for 90 percent of the world’s population. Universal health coverage requires a closer look into the social, economic, infrastructural, and even digital policies that impact a person’s ability to seek the proper healthcare procedures. By taking a holistic approach, companies can prioritize sustainable healthcare solutions that provide relief to underserved populations from transmissible diseases.
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