19 Reasons to Have Hope in 2019

There is some good health news to start off 2019.  Poverty is around the globe is decreasing.  Diseases are being eradicated and treated.  Clean water is becoming more available for everyone.  This is ALL good news.  By nations and countries working together lives are being preserved.

Extreme Poverty has decreased and the health implications that come with it.  That is right fewer people are dying from hunger and the diseases that poverty exacerbates.  Over the last 20 years the number of children dying has decreased from 30,000 a day to less than 15,000.  While this is still TOO MANY the numbers are decreasing – lives are being saved and that is good news.

Polio has almost been completely eradicated globally.  In 2018 there were only 29 cases of polio in the world.  This disease which cripples and can be fatal may soon go the way of small pox and be extinct.  IN 1996 2/3 of all children globally were immunized.  This was the beginning of the end of polio.  In the United States our children are given 3 doses of polio vaccine during their first year.

The end of the HIV / AIDS pandemic is in sight.  Since 2004 AIDS related deaths have fallen by more than 51%.  The Join United Nations Program on HIV & AIDS is working on 3 goals by 2020:

• 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status.
• 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy.
• 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

Clean water access for everyone in the world.  Progress is being made to get everyone access to clean water to drink.  This will improve hydration health and help curb diseases that like dirty living conditions.  The United Nations is committed to safe affordable drinking water for all by 2030.  That is not that many years away and that is a huge health win.