Fight Covid alongside other diseases
Coronavirus has taken over the media space. Everything is about the pandemic and we seem to have ignored the perils of other killer diseases.
With more than 10 million infections and a half million deaths, the novel Coronavirus continues to spread across the world, all health workers are still on high alert and several health facilities have been prepared to manage expected patients.
Lock downs, travel restrictions, public awareness and promotion of preventive behaviours such as social distancing, regular hand-washing are some of the controls being implemented to control the spread.
Whereas the progress towards the fight against coronavirus is commendable globally, many people are finding it difficult to access life-saving drugs for existing conditions as already strained resources are being redirected to contain the outbreak and this is likely to create an environment where other diseases will thrive.
Before the pandemic outbreak, the World Health Organisation (WHO), had estimated that four million people would lose their lives in 2020 due to tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, HIV, malaria, neglected tropical diseases and sexually transmitted disease.
Additionally, WHO had already warned about the resurgence of diseases such as Ebola, polio and measles due to a weak health systems anti vaccination beliefs.
For example, WHO preliminary global data showed that reported measles cases had risen by 300 per cent in the first three months of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018 and that this followed consecutive increases of the past two years while in a country like Congo, it had already led to an estimated 6,000 deaths of children in 2019 alone.
This not withstanding, available information from WHO indicates that each year, 15 million people die between the ages of 30 and 69 years from a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, etc, and the main risk factors are tobacco use, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets. Further prediction by WHO had already indicated that by year 2020, NCDs will account for 80 per cent of the global disease burden.
With the outbreak of Covid-19, more effort and resources have been directed towards combating the pandemic while less than adequate attention has been given to preexisting challenges before the outbreak of the pandemic, as a result, there is likely to be more deaths, for example, exposure to certain risk factors for NCDs may have increased in some areas because of lockdowns and physical inactivity in both school-going and working class people. In the fullness of time, this may result into a global pandemic of another kind. It’s also noteworthy that a host of services for other infectious diseases such as Ebola, measles, cholera and polio are simultaneously being disrupted.
Vaccination rates are likely to decrease due to delay or suspension of scheduled immunization activities this could also be another cause of extra deaths.
Information available from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that Covid-19 has already impacted on vaccinations rates of other disease such as measles and has caused delays or suspensions of scheduled immunisation activities and more than 117 million children across 37 countries may miss out on these important vaccines. This too may have its effect on the global infant mortality rates.
The pandemic has already had a huge impact on individuals, families, and communities globally.
Health systems in many countries are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with coronavirus, compounded by fear, misinformation and lock-downs that disrupt the delivery of healthcare.
As a result, lives have been profoundly changed, economies shattered, and the public health safety nets that many people turn to in times of challenges have been stressed.
Mr Robert Tumwijukye is a concerned citizen.
