Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - October 30, 2002
Jeremy Lovell

But in a report on one of its largest research projects to date, the Geneva-based organization said life expectancy could be raised by up to a decade by judiciously targeted actions.

It said the top 10 killers, in order of deadliness, were: malnourishment, unsafe sex, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol, bad water and poor sanitation, iron deficiency, smoke inhalation from indoor fires, high cholesterol and obesity.

"While none of these is new, the fact that tobacco, alcohol and cholesterol rank so high in a global survey is a big surprise," Chris Murray, author of the WHO's World Health Report 2002, told Reuters.

"There is no longer a risk or disease that is the exclusive preserve of the rich countries," he added.

The report said the top 10 killers accounted for more than one-third of the 56 million deaths globally each year.

WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland told a news conference in London the report was a major step forward in public health policy.

"The world is living dangerously," she said. "A large part of the world's population does so because they have little choice, but a large part does so because they make the wrong choices."

She called the findings a wake-up call. "With this report the WHO is moving to spur a global reassessment of the way we think of disease and the role of public health," she added.

In the developing countries, 170 million children were malnourished and three million a year were dying as a result.

But in both developed and developing nations more than one billion people were overweight of whom 300 million were clinically obese and at least 500,000 were dying each year.

It said HIV/AIDS was now the world's fourth biggest killer, with 40 million people infected worldwide of whom 70 percent were in Africa.

"Globally, about 2.9 million deaths a year are attributable to unsafe sex, most of these deaths occurring in Africa," the report said.

Smoking and alcohol were also major killers, with tobacco alone killing some five million people a year and alcohol a similar number, it added.

Also high on the killer list was polluted water, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene which together accounted for 1.7 million deaths a year -- mostly among children.

Iron deficiency -- particularly among infants and pregnant women -- was another leading assassin, afflicting two million people globally and killing one million a year, it said.

Other nutrient deficiencies such as Vitamin A, iodine and zinc also took their toll, as did indoor air pollution from fires for heating and cooking.

But not all was doom and gloom, the report said.

"Many of the risk factors can be reversed quickly, and most benefits accrue within a decade," it said. "The gains in healthy life span can increase on average by 10 years in developing countries and five years in developed nations."

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