COVID drops from global top 10 as respiratory diseases remain a threat to Kenya -WHO
While COVID-19 has dropped out of the top 10 global causes of death, the World Health Organization warns that respiratory diseases remain a significant health threat in Kenya and East Africa. Lower respiratory infections have reclaimed their status as a leading cause of mortality in the region.
Why it matters
It underscores the need for continued public health focus on endemic respiratory illnesses despite the decline of the pandemic.
COVID-19 is no longer among the world’s 10 leading causes of death, but its decline has not ended the respiratory health challenge facing Kenya and the wider East African region.
New World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates show that COVID-19 caused about 900,000 deaths worldwide in 2023, making it the 14th leading cause of death globally. That marks a sharp fall from the pandemic’s peak, when COVID-19 was the world’s leading cause of death in 2021 and third in 2020.
At the same time, lower respiratory infections reclaimed their position as the world’s leading communicable cause of death, killing about 2.7 million people in 2023.
WHO says deaths from lower respiratory infections returned to around their 2019 pre-pandemic level after the competing impact of COVID-19 declined.
For Kenya, the change is significant because the country entered the COVID-19 pandemic with respiratory infections already among its major causes of death.
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