Covid lockdowns "could cause 1m extra deaths from other diseases"

PanARMENIAN.Net - As health services around the world continue to focus resources on ending the coronavirus pandemic, they threaten to derail decades of hard-won progress tackling diseases like HIV and tuberculosis, CNN reports citing a new report by the International AIDS Society.

The society plans to raise its concerns during the 23rd International AIDS conference, which began Monday, July 6.

"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," said Dr. Anton Pozniak, president of the International AIDS Society, last week.

A survey released in June by the NGO Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria found that across 106 of the countries it works in, 85% had reported disruptions to their HIV services, 78% to tuberculosis services, and 73% to malaria services. Nearly 20% reported severe disruptions for all three diseases.

Models by the World Health Organization, Stop TB partnership and Imperial College London have predicted that such disruptions could lead to more than 1 million extra deaths across these three diseases.