World Health Report 1998

Report provides the latest expert assessment of the global health situation, and uses that as a basis for projecting health trends to the year 2025. Examining the entire human life span, and sifting data gathered in the past 50 years, it studies the well-being of infants and children, adolescents and adults, older people and the "older old", and identifies priority areas for action in each age group. Women's health is given special emphasis. The future of human health in the 21st century depends a great deal on a commitment to investing in the health of women in the world today. Their health largely determines the health of their children, who are the adults of tomorrow. The report's most disturbing finding is that, despite increasing life expectancy, two-fifths of all deaths in the world this year can be considered premature, in that more than 20 million people a year are dying before the age of 50, while average life expectancy has risen to 68 years. Ten million of these deaths are among children under 5 years; 7.4 million others are among adults aged 20-49.