Regional Director, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Egypt.
Chair Eastern Mediterranean Region Commission on Social Determinants of Health & Director Institute of Health Equity, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
East Mediterr Health J. 2021 Mar 23;27(3):217-219. doi: 10.26719/2021.27.3.217.
Evidence has shown that some of the major causes of health inequities arise from the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, in addition to a wider set of forces and systems shaping individuals' and societies' health and well-being. Such conditions are known as the 'social determinants of health'. However, efforts to address these determinants have remained challenging and unsatisfactory in many parts of the world, including in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Policies to contain the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have further exposed and amplified the existing and even created new dimensions in social and health inequities, as we elaborate further below. Meanwhile, the pandemic offers a unique opportunity to tackle inequities and build back fairer.
证据表明，除了影响个人和社会健康与福祉的更广泛的力量和系统外，健康不平等的一些主要原因还源于人们出生、成长、生活、工作和衰老的环境。这些条件被称为“健康的社会决定因素”。然而，在包括东地中海区域在内的世界许多地区，解决这些决定因素的努力仍然具有挑战性和不尽如人意。遏制当前 COVID-19 大流行的政策进一步暴露和放大了现有的甚至是新的社会和健康不平等层面，如下文进一步阐述的那样。与此同时，大流行为解决不平等问题和建立更公平的体系提供了一个独特的机会。
