5b people have no access to basic surgery

Report examines case for operation as an integral component of health care

Millions of people are dying from easily treatable conditions such as appendicitis, fractures or obstructed labour because they either have no access or cannot afford proper surgical care, a significant research published in the prestigious journal Lancet has revealed.

Part of a major project that was launched in London on Monday, the findings show that two-thirds of people worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgery and anaesthesia when they need it.

“Too many people are dying from common, treatable surgical conditions. The problem is especially acute in the lowend-middle-income countries of eastern, western and central sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia,” said Lars Hagander, one of the lead authors from the Lund University, Sweden.

The project is written by a group of 25 leading experts from across the fields of surgery and anaesthesia with contributions from more than 110 countries.

The report examines the case for surgery as an integral component of health care, focusing on low- and middle-income countries, where need is greatest. Access is worst in lowincome and lower-middle income countries where as many as nine out of 10 people cannot access basic surgical care.

Just under a third of all deaths in 2010 (16.9 million deaths) were from conditions treatable with surgery — well surpassing the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria combined, the report said. Yet, despite this enormous burden of death and illness -which is largely borne by the world’s poorest people — surgery has, until now, been overlooked as a critical need for the health of the world’s population.

“In the absence of surgical care, common, easily treatable illnesses become fatal,” added Andy Leather, director of the King’s Centre for Global Health at King’s College London and another lead author.

The global community cannot continue to ignore this problem. The project was launched with a daylong symposium at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.