by Saaransh Mishra
With the global coronavirus cases at a frightening 19,005,483 and the death toll at 7,11,858 as on 6th August 2020, a majority of the world’s attention has been inadvertently diverted towards combating this gargantuan epidemic that hangs like a sword on our heads. Countries have adopted diverse measures that have yielded varying outcomes in different parts of the world, some yielding successes while others have proved to be futile. Different entities have also immersed themselves in the creation of a vaccine, but these vaccines are in various phases of trials and are yet to be confirmed as effective. Gauging by the current state of things, despite some initial victories, we might be a while away from finding a permanent cure in the form of a vaccine.
However, in the midst of the havoc that this unprecedented pandemic has wreaked, multiple other insidious diseases like Tuberculosis, Malaria, HIV have taken a backseat. This is extremely alarming, given the fact that tuberculosis is the biggest infectious-disease killer claiming 1.5 million lives each year. As coronavirus consumes a substantial chunk of global health resources, these perennially neglected adversaries have started to stage a comeback. Coronavirus has not just diverted scientific attention from these other diseases, the lockdowns, particularly across parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America have raised unconquerable obstacles for patients who must travel to obtain diagnoses or drugs, according to interviews of more than a dozen public health officials, doctors and patients worldwide. About 80% of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV programs worldwide have reported disruptions in services, and 1 in 4 people living with HIV have reported problems with gaining access to medications, according to U.N. AIDS.
The gravity of the problem is comparatively acute for India, considering that India is home to 27% of the global Tuberculosis cases and it also has the third-highest number of HIV patients in the world, with a whopping 2.1 million affected by it until 2017. In addition, as a result of the lockdown that has mightily hindered the movement of people, the tuberculosis diagnosis has nearly dropped by 75% since the pandemic began.
With respect to Tuberculosis and HIV, India has scored some victories in recent years. Overall, India’s HIV epidemic is on a downward trend. Between 2010 and 2017, new infections declined by 27% and AIDS-related deaths halved, falling by 56%. In 2017, 79% of the people living with HIV were aware of their status, and 71% out of them were on antiretroviral treatment (ART). In 2018, The Narendra Modi Government in India launched an ambitious campaign to eradicate TB from India by 2025, five years ahead of the global target. According to the TB India annual Report 2017, the cases of Tb had reduced from 289 per lakh per year in 2000 to 217 per lakh per year in 2015, and the mortality rate had reduced from 56 per lakh per year to 36 per lakh per year in 2015. However, the overwhelming attention that coronavirus has been receiving, and the lockdowns that have hindered movement, risk the derailing of any improvements that had occurred in the past years. According to an estimate published recently in the Times of India, a three-month lockdown across different parts of the world and eventual return to normalcy over 10 months could result in an additional 6.3 million cases of tuberculosis itself and 1.4 million deaths from it globally. The brunt of this would fall massively on India as well, with a large population of infected people unable to receive treatment or drugs.
It would undoubtedly be imprudent to downplay the impact that the novel coronavirus has had not just on India, but globally, due to its severely contagious nature. Nevertheless, one cannot turn a blind eye to the plethora of other heart, respiratory, diarrhoeal, and chronic renal diseases that kill lakhs of Indians each year. Additionally, patients with other comorbidities (additional medical conditions) are substantially more susceptible to catching the virus. This necessitates regular treatment for patients with pre-existing health conditions to protect them for the virus.
The glaring inadequacies of our healthcare infrastructure have been brought to the fore by the pandemic. It is instrumental that we take lessons from our current predicament and equip our healthcare infrastructure in a way that it can shoulder the burden of the other fatal diseases that have historically been a challenge for us and continue to do so. Hindered treatment or the availability of drugs for these other diseases by interrupting supply chains and physical barriers to movement will only exacerbate the pre-existing herculean challenges that we already have been facing for decades. Thus, it is extremely essential to strike a right balance and unfortunately, we have been unable to do so. Lack of preparedness has already cost us a lot of lives, and will only continue to do so, not just in the form of the novel coronavirus, but various other equally deadly diseases too.
Sources:
The Times of India
Livemint
Worldometer
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The Indian Express