One Million

1,000,000+ migrants and refugees cross into Europe

The number of migrants and refugees crossing into Europe by land and sea this year has passed one million, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

Myanmar: Precursors to genocide
Violence since 2012 has killed scores and left 140,000 trapped in displacement camps that have been described as open air prisons. More than 1 million face persecution in Myanmar and nowhere in the world are there more known precursors to genocide.

Boko Haram violence forces one million children out of school – U.N.
Violence targeted by the terrorist group Boko Haram has shut down than 2,000 schools in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, forcing more than one million children out of school, “leaving them prey to abuse, abduction and recruitment by armed groups,” said the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF on Tuesday.

Extreme Weather Events and Storms

Extreme weather events and storms on the lower end of intensity scales regularly affect at least a million or people across African, Asian, Pacific and South American countries.

Air Pollution
Smog caused by coal consumption is expected to kill an estimated one million people in China in 2015.

Flooding
“From the onset of the rains in mid-December 2014 through mid-January 2015, the country received continuous rainfall that led to the worst flooding in many years,” said Malawian President Peter Mutharika. “The floods affected about 1.1 million people. It damaged people’s property and public infrastructure and at least 64,000 hectares of crop fields throughout the country. 101 people were killed and 172 people were reported missing.”

Mortality 2015 and Crude Death Rate
Total number of deaths in 2015 is estimated at 57.6 million. The estimate is based on the 2014 crude death rate of 7.89 deaths per 1,000 and global population of 7.3 billion.

In 2015, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will be responsible for about two-thirds of all deaths globally.

In 2012, more than half (514) of each 1,000 deaths were caused by the following 10 conditions:

Source: WHO, 2012. [Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that makes it hard to breathe.]

More than One Million

Cancer
The most common cancers in 2015 are projected to be breast cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, prostate cancer, colon and rectum cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma of the skin, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, thyroid cancer, kidney and renal pelvis cancer, endometrial cancer, leukemia, and pancreatic cancer.

In 2015, an estimated 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 589,430 people will die from the disease.

Cancers figure among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with approximately 14.1 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer related deaths in 2012 [latest data available -WHO.]

• Tobacco use was the most important risk factor for cancer causing around 20% of global cancer deaths and around 70% of global lung cancer deaths.
• Cancer causing viral infections such as HBV/HCV and HPV are responsible for up to 20% of cancer deaths in low- and middle-income countries (2).
• More than 60% of world’s total new annual cases occur in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. These regions account for 70% of the world’s cancer deaths

The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic: 78 Million people infected
Since the beginning of the epidemic, almost 78 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 39 million people have died of HIV. Globally, 35.0 million [33.2–37.2 million] people were living with HIV at the end of 2013. An estimated 0.8% of adults aged 15–49 years worldwide are living with HIV, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

• The 39 million people have died from AIDS-related causes so far, including 1.2 million in 2014.
• An estimated 2.0 million individuals worldwide became newly infected with HIV in 2014. This includes over 220,000 children
• About 17.1 million people are unaware they have the virus and an estimated 22 million do not have access to HIV treatment, including 1.8 million children.
• The vast majority of people living with HIV are in low- and middle-income countries, with sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected region, with 25.8 million people living with HIV in 2014.
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for almost 70 percent of the global total of new HIV infections.
  According to WHO, Exit Disclaimer an estimated 34 million people have died from AIDS-related causes so far, including 1.2 million in 2014.

Background: On June 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publish a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), in five young, previously healthy, gay men in Los Angeles. All the men have other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems are not working; two have already died by the time the report is published. This edition of the MMWR marks the first official reporting of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic.

Parkinson’s disease
As many as one million Americans live with Parkinson’s disease, with 60,000 diagnosed with the disease each year. Worldwide, an estimated 10 million people are living with Parkinson’s.

 

U.S. Police Killed 1,152 People This Year

Epidemic of Police Homicide Spreading

U.S. police have killed at least 1,152 people throughout the country between  January 1 and December 15, 2015. About one in four of the people was killed by police departments in one of America’s largest 60 cities, according to a report.

“An unarmed black person living in these cities was 6x more likely than an unarmed white person to be killed by police. An unarmed black person was almost as likely as an armed white person to be killed by police.”

Key Findings:

• In 2014, 1 in 3 U.S. police killings happened in the 100 largest cities.
• Black people were 21% of the population and 40% of people killed by police in these cities.
• Most unarmed people killed by police in major U.S. cities were black (56%). Fewer than 1 in 5 (19%) were white.
• An unarmed black person living in these cities was 6x more likely than an unarmed white person to be killed by police. An unarmed black person was almost as likely as an armed white person to be killed by police.
• The Police Homicide rate for black men in 17 cities is higher than the U.S. homicide rate. Black men in these cities have a higher chance of being killed by police than the average American has of being killed by anyone.
• Black men in six cities face a higher chance of being killed by police than the average American has of being killed in a car accident.

Excerpts from the report:

59 of the nation’s largest 60 city police departments killed civilians in 2015. Some killed at much higher rates than others:

• Bakersfield, Oklahoma City, Oakland, Indianapolis Metropolitan, Long Beach, New Orleans, St. Louis Metropolitan, and San Francisco Police Departments killed people at the highest rates in 2015.

• Rates of police killings differed sharply among police departments. For example, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department killed over 7x more people per capita in 2015 than did Philadelphia Police Department.

• Of the 60 police departments reviewed, only Riverside Police Department did not kill anyone in 2015.

Black people were more likely to be killed by America’s largest city police departments:

• Police departments disproportionately killed black people, who were 41% of victims despite being only 20% of the population living in these cities.

• 41 of the 60 police departments disproportionately killed black people relative to the population of black people in their jurisdiction.

• 14 police departments killed black people exclusively in 2015, 100% of the people they killed were black. For only 5 police departments were 100% of those killed white.

Full report is available HERE.