Pandemic Could Increase Mortality Due HIV, TB, Malaria, Modeling Study Shows

Reuters: Study predicts surge in HIV, TB and malaria deaths amid COVID-19 pandemic
“Deaths from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria could surge in poor and middle-income countries as already weak health systems grapple with severe disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a predictive study published on Monday. Over the next five years, deaths from the three diseases could rise by as much as 10%, 20%, and 36% respectively — putting the mortality impact on a scale similar to the direct impact of the coronavirus pandemic itself, the modeling study found…” (Kelland, 7/13).

VOA News: COVID-19 May Raise Death Toll from HIV, TB and Malaria
“… ‘It looks to us like a big part of minimizing the entire impact of the COVID-19 epidemics in these countries is going to be maintaining services for these key diseases,’ said Imperial College London global health professor Timothy Hallett, co-author of the new study in The Lancet Global Health. Experts have seen this before. In other epidemics, people have avoided seeking care out of fear of the outbreak disease, and overwhelmed health systems have been unable to provide services. … Hallett and colleagues used mathematical models to estimate how different COVID-19 control scenarios would affect health care systems, and how those impacts would affect patients with HIV, TB and malaria…” (Baragona, 7/14).

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