Fight Against COVID-19 Threatens Progress Against Other Diseases

MONDAY, July 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Decades of progress against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases worldwide are threatened by the diversion of resources on the COVID-19 pandemic, the International AIDS Society says in a report to be published this week.

“The social distancing efforts and lockdowns to control the spread of it (coronavirus), have disrupted HIV prevention and treatment programs and put vital HIV research on hold,” Anton Pozniak, M.D., president of the International AIDS Society, said last week, CNN reported. The society will outline its concerns during the 23rd International AIDS conference, which began Monday.

A survey released in June by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria found that among the 106 countries in which the international financing nongovernmental organization works, 85 percent had disruptions to HIV services, 78 percent to tuberculosis services, and 73 percent to malaria services, and nearly 20 percent had major disruptions in services for all three diseases, CNN reported.

These disruptions could result in more than 1 million extra deaths due to the three diseases, according to models by the World Health Organization, Imperial College London, and Stop TB partnership.

CNN Article