4 February 2021
In South Australia we have a world-class health information and communications system which has helped us combat the COVID pandemic to the current point of zero cases of community transmission.
In many Third World countries the picture is far, far bleaker.
Today, 4 in 10 of the world’s deaths are unregistered and in the African region, only 1 in 10 deaths is currently recorded. That was the grim snapshot from the first ever global assessment of country health information systems released this week by the World Health Organization in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Two-thirds of low-income countries have established a standardised system to report causes of deaths. However, the SCORE Report highlights the urgent need to strengthen these systems to help the world respond to health emergencies and track progress towards global health goals.
“The pandemic has stretched the capacity of country health information systems around the world, as they must track both the disease and other critical health trends,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“The SCORE report is an important step towards better data, for better decisions and better health.”
This lack of data severely limits countries in their ability to plan and implement effective health programmes.
"With SCORE at hand, WHO will support countries around the world to address data gaps and strengthen their data and health information systems," said Dr Samira Asma, Assistant Director-General, for Data, Analytics and Delivery.
For more information on SCORE, click
here.