By: Shyam Bishen
- Health was a major focus in 2024, shaping global news and driving key discussions at the World Economic Forum.
- From climate change health impacts to the rise of antimicrobial resistance and improving health equity for women, here are 6 top health stories of the year.
1. The impact of climate change on health
Our 2024 report Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health, in association with Oliver Wyman, explored how climate change will reshape global health over the next two decades.
Failing to mitigate and adapt to climate change will pose our greatest global risk, according to the report, with shifting climate and weather patterns already causing alarming trends. These include rising pathogens, increased pollution, worsening extreme weather and widening health inequities, especially for vulnerable populations with limited access to quality healthcare.
Overview of climate hazard impact on health outcomes.Image: World Economic Forum/Oliver Wyman
The climate crisis could result in an additional 14.5 million deaths, $12.5 trillion in economic losses, and $1.1 trillion in extra costs to healthcare systems by 2050. Floods, droughts and heatwaves were highlighted as the three most acute climate risks for global health.
The report noted two areas of focus for improving healthcare system resilience: preventing the health impacts of climate change and enhancing recovery from climate events.
The world paid considerable attention to the intersection of climate and health this year, with 2024 seeing a health day held at COP29 for the second time in history. This issue was also a special focus area for the G20 health agenda in 2024.
2. Communicable disease outbreaks
2024 saw the rise or return of several infectious diseases, including:
- Measles cases surged by 20% in 2023, with 10.3 million reported globally, the World Health Organization warned in November, with vaccine misinformation driving the largest drop in childhood vaccinations in 30 years.
- Mpox was declared a public health emergency by the WHO in August following the discovery of a new ‘clade 1b’ strain of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Travel-related cases were also reported in Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and other countries.
- Since 2021, cases of dengue have doubled, with the WHO reporting over 12.7 million between January and September 2024 – nearly double the number of cases in 2023.
3. How technology is improving health
We’ve covered many stories this year on how generative AI is being applied in healthcare to improve research, diagnostics, treatment and other processes.
Patient-First Health with Generative AI: Reshaping the Care Experience, produced by the Forum in collaboration with ZS, focused on key patient-facing generative AI use cases, adoption barriers and actions to overcome them, highlighting six case studies of real-world implementations.
Meanwhile, this article explored how AI can help healthcare systems manage increasing stress and reduce waste, but challenges remain, especially in low- and middle-income countries, including unreliable results and misapplication.
4. Women’s health
Despite living longer than men, women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health. That’s just one of the startling stats from a Forum report produced in association with the McKinsey Health Institute.
Closing the Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity to Improve Lives and Economies revealed the impact of this gap on society and the global economy, highlighting barriers to health equity as well as ways to move forward and drive action.
Women’s health gap and GDP impact by age groups.Image: World Economic Forum/McKinsey Health Institute
Progress begins with ensuring women’s voices are central to the health conversation, argued Alaa Murabit of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Forum’s Amira Ghouaibi in this piece on how leaders are championing women’s health.
5. Health and work
Given how much time we spend at work, our jobs significantly impact our health and therefore the health of the global economy. In this video, one CEO explains the relationship between poor employee mental health and the bottom line, and the importance of senior executives to improving outcomes for all.
Workplace wellbeing remained a key topic in 2024. Explore a selection of articles from the past year for more insights.
6. Antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remained a major global threat in 2024.
This explainer traced the issue from Alexander Fleming’s discovery of the first antibiotic to the rise of drug resistance, highlighting its current impact on global health, food security and development.
In September 2024, the United Nations held its second-ever AMR High-Level Meeting, where Member States pledged to reduce AMR-related deaths by 10% by 2030 and commit $100 million to help 60% of countries implement national action plans.
In October, Manica Balasegaram, Executive Director of the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership, highlighted new research predicting that drug-resistant deaths could reach 169 million by 2050. Here, he explains how improving global access to the right antibiotics is crucial to addressing the issue.
(World Economic Forum)
