see url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/health/coronavirus-tuberculosis-aids-malaria.html
Quote<<<
Tuberculosis kills 1.5 million people each year. Lockdowns and
supply-chain disruptions threaten progress against the disease as well
as H.I.V. and malaria.
It begins with a mild fever and malaise, followed by a painful cough and
shortness of breath. The infection prospers in crowds, spreading to
people in close reach. Containing an outbreak requires contact tracing,
as well as isolation and treatment of the sick for weeks or months.
This insidious disease has touched every part of the globe. It is
tuberculosis, the biggest infectious-disease killer worldwide, claiming
1.5 million lives each year.
Until this year, T.B. and its deadly allies, H.I.V. and malaria, were on
the run. The toll from each disease over the previous decade was at its
nadir in 2018, the last year for which data are available.
Yet now, as the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, consuming
global health resources, these perennially neglected adversaries are
making a comeback.
“Covid-19 risks derailing all our efforts and taking us back to where we
were 20 years ago,” said Dr. Pedro L. Alonso, the director of the World
Health Organization’s global malaria program.
It’s not just that the coronavirus has diverted scientific attention
from T.B., H.I.V. and malaria. The lockdowns, particularly across parts
of Africa, Asia and Latin America, have raised insurmountable barriers
to patients who must travel to obtain diagnoses or drugs, according to
interviews with more than two dozen public health officials, doctors and
patients worldwide.
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