Lung tuberculosis, malaria threatens mankind
Covid-19 appeared to cause disturbances in medical resources, causing many other dangerous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV to flare up.
Pulmonary tuberculosis kills 1.5 million people each year, the most fatal infectious disease in the world. During the past decade, the number of deaths from infectious diseases has been kept at the lowest level. However, in the epidemic period, tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria are waiting to return.
The problem not only comes from the shift of the scientific community's focus to COV but also from quarantine, which has left patients in Asia, Africa, and Latin America facing many barriers to accessing medical services, diagnosis, or treatment. In order to limit air and maritime movement also make it difficult to transport drugs to the most affected areas.
Treatment interruptions and delays can lead to drug resistance, an inherent problem in many countries.
Experts predict that if the above situation persists, the number of cases of tuberculosis, HIV and malaria worldwide could increase by hundreds of thousands to millions. This will delay medical achievements for years, even decades.
The first problem comes from a delay in diagnosis. The longer a patient is diagnosed, the later the course of treatment begins. For infectious diseases, the disease has additional conditions of spread, worsening and causing death.
Malaria, for example, can be fatal when diagnosed a little bit slower. In some cases, patients die within 36 hours of the onset of high fever. The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering distributing malaria drugs to all Africans - a reluctant measure that has been used in the Ebola epidemic before.
Impaired diagnostic capacity can make the disease more contagious. Each TB patient can infect as many as 15 other people within a year, especially in a home setting - which is almost certain when a blockade is made.
Many of the tools that are used to diagnose HIV and TB are now used to test for nCoV. In many countries, the number of TB cases detected fell sharply: 70% in Indonesia, 50% in Mozambique and South Africa, and 20% in China, according to WHO data.
Dr Giorgio Franyuti, executive director of Medical Impact, a medical advocacy group in Mexico, said: "No one should be tested for TB. In the mind of current health workers as well as the authorities. only Covid-19 in spite of being the "scariest" monster. The number of nCoV deaths cannot be compared to tuberculosis, he asserts.
The pandemic also makes the supply of test equipment scarce as companies turn to produce nCoV test kits to make more profits. Spectacle occurs with both tuberculosis and malaria.
The second major problem is treatment disruptions, namely: supply chain constraints, diversion in drug manufacture, and geographic barriers for patients who need to move to pick up drugs.
In Indonesia, many HIV patients have to take the amount of medication that is given for one month to two months, although this may affect their health.
The Nairobi blockade leads many patients to borrow drugs from relatives, mix or even quit, leading to a very high risk of resistance. Thomas Wouto, an HIV patient, has to borrow his wife's medicine.
Mexico's drug supply has expired. In Brazil, HIV and TB drugs are purchased and distributed by the Ministry of Health. At present, when all resources are concentrated on Covid-19, distribution and treatment are limited. Even when governments and private organizations buy drugs months in advance, global stocks could be depleted prematurely.
More than 80% of the world's supply of antivirals comes from India. Production costs can rise to about $ 225 million a year due to material shortages, labor, transportation, and currency fluctuations, according to the United Nations AIDS Organization.
"We depend only on a few key developers and manufacturers. What needs to be done is to diversify the supply of important drugs," said Dr. Meg Doherty, WHO's HIV program director. price.
Linh Phan (According to NY Times)