WHO warns global health progress slowing amid widening inequalities

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Wednesday that global health progress is losing momentum, with growing inequalities and mounting pressures threatening to reverse gains achieved over the past decade.

In its newly released World Health Statistics 2026 report, WHO said the world is not on course to meet any of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, despite improvements in several key areas including HIV prevention, sanitation access, and neglected tropical diseases.

The report showed that new HIV infections declined by 40% between 2010 and 2024, while the number of people requiring treatment or interventions for neglected tropical diseases fell by 36%. Tobacco and alcohol consumption have also decreased globally since 2010.

WHO said access to essential services expanded rapidly over the past decade, with nearly 1 billion additional people gaining access to safely managed drinking water between 2015 and 2024. During the same period, 1.2 billion more people gained access to sanitation services, 1.6 billion to basic hygiene, and 1.4 billion to clean cooking solutions.

Regional progress also varied, with the WHO African Region recording sharper declines in HIV and tuberculosis cases than the global average, while countries in South-East Asia remain on track to meet malaria reduction targets for 2025.

Warning signs grow

Despite those gains, the agency said progress remains uneven and fragile.

Global malaria incidence has risen by 8.5% since 2015, while anemia continues to affect nearly one-third of women of reproductive age with little improvement over the last decade.

The report also pointed to increasing childhood overweight rates, which reached 5.5% among children under five in 2024, alongside persistent violence against women worldwide.

“These data tell a story of both progress and persistent inequality, with many people – especially women, children and those in underserved communities – still denied the basic conditions for a healthy life,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

WHO said advances toward universal health coverage have slowed considerably, noting that one in four people globally faced financial hardship linked to health care costs. Around 1.6 billion people were either living in or pushed into poverty because of out-of-pocket medical spending in 2022.

The report also stressed the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which WHO estimates contributed to 22.1 million excess deaths between 2020 and 2023, including indirect fatalities.

At the same time, the agency warned that weak health data systems continue to hinder global monitoring efforts. As of the end of 2025, only 18% of countries were reporting mortality data to WHO within one year, limiting the ability to track health trends and respond effectively to crises.