The fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in sharp decline because of Covid-19
A child receives a dose of malaria vaccine in Burkina Faso.
AFP - OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting the fight against other diseases.
New illustration with the publication this Wednesday, September 8 of the annual report of the Global Fund against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
The finding is clear: the Covid-19 has had a “
devastating impact
” on prevention programs for other epidemics.
Advertising
Read more
How to fight against HIV / AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic?
We are simply trying to limit the breakage.
Last year, for the first time in twenty years, most monitoring indicators fell.
The 2020 figures "
confirm what we feared when the Covid-19 appeared,
" summed up Peter Sands, executive director of the Fund, quoted in the report.
“
The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating.
For the first time in our history, our main indicators are on the decline
”.
For example, in 2020 the number of people being treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis fell by 19%.
In countries where the Global Fund invests, some 4.7 million people with the disease have received treatment, about one million fewer than in 2019.
In Dakar, Serge Yotta, advocacy director at Coalition Plus, explains: “
Travel restrictions have had a significant impact because our sexual health centers have experienced very low attendance and this is what has limited access to basic prevention services.
"
Globally, screening fell 22% last year.
Good news, however, in this slump, prevention against malaria has held up well. “
Community health workers have been successful in adapting malaria prevention programs. For example in Benin, we saw door-to-door distribution of mosquito nets which made it possible to reach all families rather than telling them
"come to the village square"
obviously during the Covid period, it was not okay. not work. To be able to do this, they needed personal protective equipment. It is the additional funding from the Fund that allowed this kind of thing in particular,
”explains Françoise Vanni, director of external relations for the Global Fund.
In 2021, the Global Fund distributed three billion euros for the response against Covid-19, used to provide requesting countries with masks, tests, oxygen.
But now, this source is drying up and may be lacking in the coming weeks.
We recorded an 11% reduction in the number of people who were able to benefit from the prevention service, which unfortunately means that if we do not accelerate our efforts, our adaptations and our innovations in this sector, these setbacks in prevention could result by an increase in the incidence in the near future, which potentially means an increase in the number of deaths linked to HIV / AIDS.
Francoise Vanni
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Health and medicine
AIDS