At the 79th World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a stark reality: only 73 out of 194 Member States can routinely produce death counts. This alarming gap, exposed by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on mortality surveillance, underscores the vulnerability of global health systems.
Doris Ma Fat, a WHO data expert, told EMJ that the lack of functional mortality data is 'outrageous.' The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare these weaknesses, even in high-income countries, while low-income nations struggle with underreporting due to a lack of incentives for death declaration.
Ongoing Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda further highlight the issue, with authorities unable to confirm death tolls or even the start of the epidemic. Without cause-of-death data, governments cannot prioritize public health investments.
Ma Fat urged nations not to wait for another pandemic. She recommends immediate community-level data collection through local agents and centralized databases, while long-term system reforms are underway. A draft resolution for mortality monitoring is expected at the World Health Assembly by 2027 or 2028.