Hundreds of thousands of people will die of tuberculosis left untreated because of disruption to healthcare systems in poor countries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a global aid fund said.
In a few of the world's poorest countries, excess deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis could even exceed those from the coronavirus itself, said the head of the Geneva-based aid body, known as the Global Fund.
"Essentially, about a million people less were treated for TB in 2020 than in 2019 and I'm afraid that will inevitably mean that hundreds of thousands of people will die," Executive Director Peter Sands told Reuters. The Geneva-based Global Fund is an alliance of governments, civil society and private sector partners investing more than $4 billion per year to fight tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS. The United States is its top donor.
He said the decline in treatment for other diseases "underscores the need to look at the total impact of COVID-19 and measure success in combating it not just by the reduction in deaths due to COVID-19 itself but to the knock on impact".
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