Post outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, the focus of most of the global healthcare workers and associated resources has been on treating people affected by the deadly coronavirus and containing the spread of the virus. This has led to a major hindrance in the progress of the treatment of diseases like HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Covid Is Exhausting The Resources For Critical Illnesses Like HIV Aids
As per the research and study by the New Global Fund earlier this year, the Covid-19 has immensely affected the health systems. Especially, the health service delivery for HIV, TB, and malaria in low- and middle-income countries. The study shows that the global fight against these diseases, especially AIDS has been severely impacted and around 2/3rd of all countries are experiencing a decline in service levels for HIV.
With limited access to testing for HIV and related diseases, experts believe that the infections due to these diseases may have shot up significantly in the past year and a half. According to Gary Lacasse, executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society, the profits made to fight against these diseases are lost and we have been pushed back by a few years in our fight against HIV at a global level.
While the fact was pointed by the New Global Fund sometime in April 2021, the statement from Dr. Antony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA at the UN General Assembly in November 2021 has again bought out the issue to everyone’s notice.
In the speech, Dr. Fauci also referred to the possibility that the UN target goal of ending AIDS by 2030 could not be met due to the impediments faced over the past year and a half.
The New Global Fund pointed out that during the pandemic due to the diversion of nursing and testing staff, the testing for HIV dropped by as much as 41% to 50% in the year 2020. This is corroborated by an independent study by “The Lancet” that examined the impact of Covid-19 on the progress against the fight against AIDS in South Africa.
While acknowledging the impact of Covid-19 on the progress to eradicate AIDS and prescribing measures to restart the focus of healthcare staff and resources to fight against AIDS, Dr. Fauci said that the observations made by our scientists and healthcare workers are crucial. It can act as a reference and study to fight against grave medical conditions.
He emphasized the need for global healthcare companies, private and public sectors to collectively work together to eradicate AIDS and improve the availability of drugs and treatments for those affected by AIDS especially in low-income countries.
According to a report released on Monday by UNAIDS, a UN agency leading the effort against AIDS, there were more than 1.5 million new HIV infections in the year 2020 and the deaths due to AIDS may go up exponentially if uncontrolled. The report urged the world leaders need to get their act together in fighting against the spread of AIDS and make HIV treatment and drugs accessible for low-income countries.
