Deaths from HIV, TB and Malaria Could Almost Double in 12 Months Unless Urgent Action is Taken
Global Fund COVID-19 Report
The Global Fund "A new report released by the Global Fund estimates that countries affected by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria urgently need US$28.5 billion to protect the extraordinary progress achieved in the fight against the three diseases in the past two decades. The report, Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Countries Affected by HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, was released today to highlight the impact of COVID-19 and resources needed to protect progress against HIV, TB and malaria – diseases that still kill more than 2.4 million people a year. Since 2002, the Global Fund partnership has helped save more than 32 million lives and cut HIV, TB and malaria deaths by nearly half since the peak of the epidemics. The COVID-19 pandemic now threatens to reverse that progress." (Photo: IDWF/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
How COVID-19 is reshaping priorities for both domestic resources and development assistance in the health sector
Joint blog
UHC2030 "The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, reshaping the global health landscape and sparking an economic crisis deeper than anything seen since the great depression. The pandemic has plainly shown the interdependence of health security and economic security. While health security - reducing the vulnerability of societies to pandemics like COVID-19 - is a distinct goal, it is interlinked with efforts to move towards universal health coverage (UHC). Neither UHC nor health security can be achieved without the foundation of common goods for health, produced through strong and resilient health systems." (Photo:
USAFRICOM/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
World Health Organisation (WHO) Stigma & discrimination against health workers is a challenge to the COVID-19 response. WHO's new guidance shows that addressing misinformation & rumors can fight this issue. (Photo: United States Mission Geneva/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
British Medical Journal (bmj) "Principles and methods drawn from decades of work showing that lower socioeconomic status is associated with poorer health should guide efforts to monitor and mitigate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic argue Geoffrey Anderson and colleagues." (Photo: USAID U.S. Agency for International Development/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
naturemedicine "Given the current trends in incidence and underlying healthcare systems vulnerabilities, Africa could become the next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic transitions to more widespread community transmission, how can the lessons learned thus far be consolidated to effectively curb the spread of COVID-19 while minimizing social disruption and negative humanitarian and economic consequences?" (Photo:
USAFRICOM/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
Health Policy Watch "African countries are lifting lockdowns even as COVID-19 cases across the continent reached a grim new milestone, topping 200,000 cases. The pandemic took only 19 days to reach 200,000 cases in Africa, while it took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases. Yet carefully easing lockdown orders in Africa may be the right move according to former United States CDC director Tom Frieden, who is currently president and chief executive officer of Resolve to Save Lives, an Vital Strategies initiative." (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Lancet "Despite over 100 000 confirmed cases and infections in every country, the passage of COVID-19 through the African continent remains somewhat enigmatic. High numbers of deaths were expected in the region due to fragile health systems, lack of access to preventive measures, barriers to testing, and potentially vulnerable populations. But, according to WHO, Africa is the least affected region globally, with 1·5% of the world's reported COVID-19 cases and 0·1% of the world's deaths." (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
United Nations - Human Rights "Several Special Procedure mandate holders will focus their forthcoming thematic reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council or the General Assembly on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the enjoyment of human rights. The questionnaire is meant to assist the human rights experts to obtain information and elaborate comprehensive recommendations on the measures taken by national, federal and local governments to protect their population and ensure the enjoyment of human rights, including particular groups at risk of discrimination or social exclusion (...)." (Photo:
UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
International AIDS Society "The International AIDS Society (IAS) is organizing a series of webinars on the topic of COVID-19 and HIV to discuss the pandemic and its impact on people living with HIV. Through these webinar sessions, the IAS would like to provide an opportunity for discussion around the latest science, in addition to sharing learning and best practices in relation to COVID-19 and HIV between countries at different stages of the pandemic, especially in lower- and middle-income countries.
The webinars are recommended to HIV professionals, government representatives working in the field of HIV, public health specialists, programme managers, service providers, civil society representatives and members of organizations supporting key and vulnerable populations." (Photo: IAS)
Health Policy Watch A new survey by WHO has found that the COVID-19 pandemic has ‘severely’ disrupted the delivery of services to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in almost 80% of countries surveyed – or 122 out of 150 countries. This is of “significant concern” WHO said on Monday in a statement, because people with NCDs also are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and death. And even prior to the pandemic, some three quarters of all deaths worldwide were due to NCDs. (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) "National Societies' and volunteers' roles will change through the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective countries and communities, based on which activities to support public health, clinical and health systems activities are likely to be most impactful in their context and with their outbreak dynamics.
This Health Help Desk Website provided by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) offers three functions:
1) Huge resource library of all available health documents, guidelines and research. Scroll down the page and click on the bold themes, and further information will open.
2) Pose any question you have to the helpdesk. They try to answer asap
3) Any questions and related answers are available on the Q&A site. Please check the Q&A section, before you pose a new question to the help desk." (Photo: © GDPC)
Medicus Mundi International (MMI) "In these difficult times, we welcome the fact that a World Health Assembly takes place. We also welcome the intense negotiation process on the COVID-19 resolution as a strong sign that Member States still want WHO to direct and coordinate the global response to COVID-19 and other international health problems, with the World Health Assembly as its decision-making body."
The New Humanitarian "No country escapes coronavirus unscathed, but South Africa seems to have done better than most – despite dire predictions that African countries are a “ticking time bomb” of COVID-19 devastation. President Cyril Ramaphosa has won international praise for a generally sure-footed response, and, after years of bad news, the country is experiencing a tentative feel-good bloom over its ability to pull together." (Photo: GovernmentZA/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
WHO Foundation "The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the creation of the WHO Foundation, an independent grant-making entity, that will support the Organization’s efforts to address the most pressing global health challenges." (Photo: United States Mission Geneva/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
Health Policy Watch US President Donald Trump announced on Friday he was terminating the US’ relationship with the World Health Organization.
"Trump’s declaration came hours after WHO’s celebratory launch of a new ‘Solidarity Call to Action ,’ urging countries to make patents and data for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines freely available as ‘global public goods.’ Some 37 countries have supported the call." (Photo: Prachatai/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
World Health Organisation (WHO) "The pandemic is a reminder of the intimate and delicate relationship between people and planet. Any efforts to make our world safer are doomed to fail unless they address the critical interface between people and pathogens, and the existential threat of climate change, that is making our Earth less habitable." WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Address to the 73rd World Health Assembly. May 18th 2020." (Photo: United States Mission Geneva/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
nature "As President Trump terminates the US relationship with the agency, experts foresee incoherence, inefficiency and a resurgence of deadly diseases. - US President Donald Trump has announced that he is “terminating” the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), and that the United States will redirect funds intended for the agency to other global-health projects. During the announcement at a news briefing on 29 May, Trump reiterated accusations that the WHO is too lenient with China." (Photo: UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
La Centrale Sanitaire Suisse Romande (CSSR) Il n’y a pas encore de catastrophe due au COVID-19 en Amérique latine, mis à part en Equateur. Dans tous les pays avec lesquels nous travaillons, il y a confinement, constatation de la fragilité des systèmes de santé, manque de matériel pour contenir l’épidémie. Les projets de la CSSR vont continuer, mais aussi ralentir. C’est le cas au Nicaragua, au Guatemala, au Mexique. (Photo: CSSR)
Enfants du Monde Am 9. März 2020 gab es in Burkina Faso die ersten Fälle von COVID-19. Mit 766 bestätigten Fällen und 52 Todesfällen (Stand am 13. Mai 2020) ist das Land heute eines der am schlimmsten betroffenen in Afrika. Neun der 13 Gesundheitsregionen des Landes sind von der Epidemie betroffen. Um das Gesundheitsministerium von Burkina Faso im Kampf gegen COVID-19 zu unterstützen, stellt Enfants du Monde in Zusammenarbeit mit unserem lokalen Partner IPC/BF (Initiative Privée et Communautaire pour la santé et la riposte au VIH/Sida au Burkina Faso) und mit finanzieller Unterstützung der Schweizer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und ihrer Geldgeber, Schutzausrüstungen für Gesundheitsdienstleister zur Verfügung und informiert die Bevölkerung. (Foto: Enfants du Monde)
Health Policy Watch "Low and middle-income countries urgently need affordable personal protective equipment, diagnostics, treatments and vaccines to ward off even bigger waves of COVID-19 infection and mortality – and global production capacity is failing to ensure timely supply even of those products now on the market. Now, more than ever, producers in poor countries need to be integrated into the health products ecosystem – at national, regional and global level – something that is good for public health, local economic development – and global public health security." (Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Geneva Health Files "Member states of World Health Organization are letting go of an opportunity to enforce binding mechanisms on sharing and pooling technology related to fighting COVID19 that would ensure equitable, affordable access to medicines, diagnostics and technologies. At the best of times, treaty-making is an uphill task, if not impossible, amongst more than 190 countries, but the pandemic could have been the imperative for countries to come together to challenge the status quo on the contentious and high-stakes game of access of medicines." By Priti Patnaik. (Photo: Jernej Furman/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
UHC2030 "The COVID-19 pandemic has substantial health, social and economic impacts, in all countries, rich and poor. We will be living with COVID-19 and its consequences for a long time to come. It is a global crisis requiring sustained international solidarity and action. (...) COVID-19 is raising questions: where to start thinking differently, and what to start doing differently, to be better prepared for emergencies as well as make progress on UHC? Do new opportunities exist to make such changes?" (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Comundo Comment s'en sortir dans une grande ville comme El Alto / La Paz durant la crise du Coronavirus ? Économie informelle au point mort, violence domestique, système de santé défaillant : Jérôme Gyger relate la situation sur place et explique son projet d'agriculture urbaine, qui donne une partie de la solution. (Photo: Avec Doña Bartolina Ticona dans sa petite serre de production biologique à El Alto/ © Comundo)
Comundo Überforderung, fehlende Betreuung und steigende Gewalt dominieren Städte wie Cochabamba in Bolivien in Zeiten der Coronakrise. Dabei geht vergessen: Kinder sind nicht nur Opfer, sondern besitzen auch Potential zur Krisenbewältigung in Familie und Gesellschaft. (Foto: Ein Mädchen, das an einem Markt in der Nähe von Quillacolo (ausserhalb Cochabamba) trotz Quarantäne versucht ihren Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. | Lizeth Salazar Bustos/AVE)
Comundo Viele leiden aktuell unter den weltweiten Quarantäne-Massnahmen. Doch es gibt Menschen, die zu ihrem Eigenschutz zuhause bleiben möchten, dies aber nicht dürfen. Die Psychotherapeutin und Comundo-Fachperson Bitia Vargas unterstützt staatliches Sicherheits- und Gesundheitspersonal in der Krise und gewährt uns einen Blick hinter die Kulissen der bolivianischen Polizei. (Im Bild die bolivianische Polizei mit einer Einheit für Bio-Sicherheit. ©ABI )
rts.ch "Tous les vendredis, "CQFD" reçoit un homme ou une femme de science pour parler de son travail et de ses recherches. Aujourd'hui, Sarah Dirren a invité Vinh-Kim Nguyen, médecin urgentiste, professeur dʹanthropologie et de sociologie de la santé et co-directeur du Centre de santé globale au Graduate Institute de Genève (IHEID), professeur au Département de médecine sociale et préventive de lʹUniversité de Montréal et Research Fellow au Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, à Halle, en Allemagne. - Une heure pour faire connaissance avec ce spécialiste dont les activités se partagent entre action sur le terrain et analyse plus globale des crises sanitaires, du VIH au Covid-19, en passant par Ebola." (Photo: IHEID)
Health Policy Watch "New technical guidance for national governments was released to support the enhanced measurement of two key indicators for the COVID-19 response; the number of cases and the number of deaths, as reported on national and global dashboards. The package was launched by global health NGO Vital Strategies." (Photo: DFID - UK Department for International Development
/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
Imperial College London "COVID-19 has the potential to cause disruptions to health services in different ways; through the health system becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, through the intervention used to slow transmission of COVID-19 inhibiting access to preventative interventions and services, and through supplies of medicine being interrupted. We aim to quantify the extent to which such disruptions in services for HIV, TB and malaria in high burden low- and middle-income countries could lead to additional loss of life." (Photo: CDC Global/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
The Lancet "About 1·8 billion people live in fragile contexts worldwide, including 168 million individuals in need of humanitarian assistance. Approximately a quarter of those in fragile contexts are women and girls of reproductive age. Experience from past epidemics in these settings has showed that discontinuing health-care services deemed unrelated to the epidemic response resulted in more deaths than did the epidemic itself. Issues related to sexual and reproductive health are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among women of childbearing age, with countries affected by fragility and crisis accounting for 61% of maternal deaths worldwide." (Photo: United Nations Photo/ flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
United Nations "Although the COVID-19 crisis is, in the first instance, a physical health crisis, it has the seeds of a major mental health crisis as well, if action is not taken. Good mental health is critical to the functioning of society at the best of times. It must be front and centre of every country’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The mental health and wellbeing of whole societies have been severely impacted by this crisis and are a priority to be addressed urgently." (Photo: Liberal Democrats/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
Graduate Institute Geneva - Global Health Centre "Gian Luca Burci and Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe examine the rights-related measures that have been adopted by the Swiss Confederation and the Cantons to respond to the current Covid-19 crisis. The main regulatory avenue that Switzerland’s Federal Council has used in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to issue federal orders effective across the entire Swiss territory." (Photo: GIG_GHC)
The Guardian "Ministers and officials from every nation will meet via video link on Monday for the annual world health assembly, which is expected to be dominated by efforts to stop rich countries monopolising drugs and future vaccines against Covid-19. As some countries buy up drugs thought to be useful against the coronavirus, causing global shortages, and the Trump administration does deals with vaccine companies to supply America first, there is dismay among public health experts and campaigners who believe it is vital to pull together to end the pandemic." (Photo: EpicTop10.com/flickr, CC BY 2.0)
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) “Since the lockdown in Zimbabwe was mandated beginning on March 30th, I take my daily walks to get out of the confines of my house. As the weeks progress, these walks have become…busier. Cars everywhere, people everywhere. My local potato and tomato vendors started reappearing at street corners, attempting to sell their produce. At one point I asked one of the vendors if the lockdown had ended, and I had somehow missed that announcement. No, the lockdown hadn't ended but the need to feed their families and earn some income had intensified. As one vendor gently mentioned ‘kusiri kufa ndekupi’ which loosely translates to ‘we are all going to die anyways’." – Constancia Mavodza." (Photo:
UN Women/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA) "Seit Beginn der COVID-19-Pandemie ist in gewissen Ländern aufgrund der Lockdown-Massnahmen und des eingeschränkten Zugangs zu Hilfsangeboten ein erhöhtes Risiko von häuslicher Gewalt zu beobachten. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat Bundesrat Ignazio Cassis zusammen mit Vertreterinnen und Vertretern von 58 anderen Ländern eine gemeinsame Erklärung zur Stärkung des Schutzes von Frauen und Mädchen in Zeiten von COVID-19 unterzeichnet.
Die gemeinsame Erklärung ruft die internationale Gemeinschaft auf, sich für den Schutz der Gesundheit und der körperlichen Integrität von Frauen einzusetzen und sicherzustellen, dass die Frauen an allen Entscheidungsprozessen im Zusammenhang mit der Pandemie umfassend teilhaben. Sie appelliert ausserdem an alle Akteure (inkl. Privatsektor), ihre Anstrengungen zu vereinen, um in besonders betroffenen Ländern Soforthilfe zu leisten, und die globale Verpflichtung für einen universellen Zugang zur Gesundheitsversorgung vollumfänglich wahrzunehmen."
