Health in El Salvador

For the period between 2005 and 2010, El Salvador had the third-lowest birth rate in Central America, with 22.8 births per 1,000. However, during the same period, it had the highest death rate in Central America, 5.9 deaths per 1,000. In 2015 life expectancy for men was 67.8 years and 77.0 years for women. Healthy life expectancy was 57 for males and 62 for females in 2003.^[1] There was considerable improvement in socioeconomic and health status from 1990 to 2015.^[2] On June 22, 2020, the Hospital El Salvador, a permanent hospital conversion of the convention center in San Salvador, was opened to the public; it is Latin America's largest hospital and was built to receive COVID-19 patients.

During the 1970s there was widespread malnutrition. Sewage systems were rare in rural areas even in the 1980s. There were high rates of infant mortality, malaria, and water-borne diseases.^[3]

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative^[4] finds that El Salvador is fulfilling 89.6% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income.^[5] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, El Salvador achieves 98.3% of what is expected based on its current income.^[5] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 82.9% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income. ^[5] El Salvador falls into the "fair" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling 87.6% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.^[5]