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Malaria test in India: tests down 4.3 percent
Photo: Anshuman Poyrekar / Hindustan Times / Getty Images
The Covid-19 pandemic is having a catastrophic impact on the fight against other deadly diseases.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported on Wednesday in Geneva.
The fund is committed to ending these three epidemics.
To this end, he invests several billion euros in more than a hundred countries every year.
Most of the money comes from governments, but also from the private sector and foundations.
For the first time in the almost 20-year history of the organization, according to Executive Director Peter Sands, there were setbacks in "important factors" last year.
Treatments and tests decreased significantly
Tuberculosis and AIDS patients are particularly affected - the number of treatments and tests for both diseases has fallen significantly as a result of the pandemic.
"The Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 2020," it said.
According to the report, in 2020 the number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis fell 19 percent in the countries the fund invests in.
The number of people who were reached with AIDS prevention programs had also decreased by 11 percent compared to 2019.
The number of HIV tests has decreased by 22 percent, which has delayed the start of treatment in most countries.
The fight against malaria was not as badly affected by Covid-19, it said.
However, the number of suspected malaria cases tested decreased by 4.3 percent.
3.3 billion for the fight against disease
The Global Fund raises, manages and invests money around the world.
The number of deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria fell by 46 percent in the countries in which the Global Fund invests, according to their own reports.
Founded in 2002 and previously approved by the G8, the international organization mobilizes and, according to its own statements, invests more than four billion US dollars annually in support of programs carried out by local experts in more than 100 countries.
By August 2021, $ 3.3 billion had already been approved for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs, and last year $ 4.2 billion (EUR 3.55 billion).
In addition, $ 980 million has been approved to respond to Covid-19.
kry / AFP / dpa