India faces the challenge of a range of infectious diseases. While deaths from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are becoming increasingly prevalent, huge numbers of Indians continue to die annually due to infectious disease. This dual burden of disease has the potential to put a substantial amount of stress on an already underfunded and under resourced health […]
HIV
Potential link between HIV and severe COVID-19 identified in study
A road sign aimed at promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Himachal Pradesh. Image credit: John Hill, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons People living with HIV are potentially more susceptible to a severe clinical course of COVID-19 than those who are HIV-negative, according to a study published in The Lancet which has provided fresh insight into the link […]
HIV/AIDS: The pandemic we are missing
Today marks World AIDS Day. As of the end of 2019, HIV/AIDS has claimed 32.7 million lives. In India, 2017 alone saw 69,000 deaths due to HIV/AIDS. The organisation dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS is UNAIDS or, to give it its full title, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS. UNAIDS’s mission assumes heightened […]
Noida to become home to AIDS centre in much-needed boon
Noida is to become home to a centre dedicated to the treatment of AIDS, one of India’s most prominent public health concerns and widespread infectious diseases. Reports indicate that the city – located in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh (GB) Nagar district – is to house a treatment centre providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) to those affected […]
Interview: Urban Weber of the Global Fund on COVID and the Big Three
The response to the ‘Big Three’ – HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis – has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts have warned that a surge in deaths due to the ‘Big Three’ could ensue, as the pandemic hits access to vital medicines and other treatments and disrupts much-needed prevention campaigns. To discuss the effect of […]
Why we need to fix the healthcare system: An interview with Dr Mikashmi Kohli
“There is a need for proper planning and strengthening the healthcare system where both the pandemic and these other treatable diseases can be managed simultaneously,” Dr Mikashmi Kohli told me recently. “We now have diagnostic tools which are multi-disease platforms so focusing just on COVID-19 , while forgetting about patients suffering from these manageable diseases, […]
HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria: A surge in deaths?
It is not news that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to public health – and as managing the pandemic ostensibly takes top priority for health systems worldwide, the ramifications for management of other diseases is a real concern. This concern has been raised in a modelling study released by The Lancet Global Health […]
HIV/AIDS: “The world can do better”
UNAIDS has issued a sharp warning about the consequences of one pandemic on another: COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Yet that is not the sole reason why we are falling behind in combating the HIV/AIDS crisis – already we were off-track. “The global aggregate of country data reported to UNAIDS shows […]
HIV/AIDS medicines: COVID hits access
Lost access to HIV/AIDS medicines is no less than a matter of life and death for those affected – but the COVID-19 pandemic has imperilled access to such drugs and, in turn, the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS. This week marks the 23rd bi-annual International AIDS Conference. The event “provides a platform for discussing […]
A time of two pandemics
The term pandemic is virtually ubiquitous in the public consciousness right now. The world is arrested in the grip of COVID-19, the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – more popularly known simply as the coronavirus. Yet COVID-19 is one of two pandemics the world is grappling with – as a […]