We live in a modern world, right? Science and especially medical sciences have made huge strides in the last few decades. It would seem that quality of life is improving for all, at least from a health care perspective… Right?
Maybe.
While huge gains have been made medically speaking, here are some stark facts…
- Over 1 billion people (about 1 in 7 alive today) still lack access to health care systems.
- Typically, 5 to 8 million people die each year from infectious diseases
- 7.5 million children under the age of 5 die from undernutrition related, largely preventable diseases each year.
- There are 37 million people living with HIV and 2 million new cases and about 1.5 to 2.0 million deaths each year due to full blown AIDS.
- Almost 2/3 of the global deaths each year are caused by non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases. 36 million out of an estimated 56 million.
- Other diseases that kill are tuberculosis (1.7M/year), pneumonia (1.6M/year), and malaria (780,000/year).
Statistics taken from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/587/health-issues
So why do I share all the numbers? Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about them? Or more importantly, should we think about opportunities and strategies that we can and are using to address health needs?
I invite you to journey with us in these next few blogs to talk about ways we can strategically engage these health issues for community development and Kingdom impact. Subscribe below so you won’t miss a post!