6, 7 Consequently, these countries that mostly fund malaria control and interventions may devote more disease control resources inward, and this could jeopardize resources for malaria control efforts in the low-income regions. COVID-19 at the time of writing this perspective has been disproportionately affecting the developed countries. 4Ĭonsidering that the malaria burden is highest in low-income countries with little capacity to fund control and elimination programs, 5 the fight against malaria is likely to be impacted negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic. As of October 23, 2020, there were more than 26 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than six million active cases in 215 countries and territories and fatalities exceeded eight hundred thousand. 3ĬOVID-19 rapidly spread into a global pandemic, as declared by the WHO on March 11, 2020. 1 Unfortunately, in December 2019, a novel illness termed COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, 2 was reported in Wuhan, China. In 2018, an estimated 228 million malaria cases and 405,000 deaths occurred worldwide, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the greatest brunt. Malaria remains a major health burden globally. Here, we address impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management and control of malaria in Africa. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected developed countries, threatening their capacity to aid in malaria control efforts. Likewise, the repurposing of antimalarials for the treatment of COVID-19 and a shift in focus from the production of malaria rapid diagnostic tests to COVID-19 rapid diagnostic tests are causes for concern in malaria-endemic regions. Indeed, access to health care has generally been limited during the pandemic, whereas malaria interventions, such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention, and distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, have been suspended because of lockdowns. Considering that the malaria burden is high in many low-income tropical countries with little capacity to fund malaria control and eradication programs, the fight against malaria in these regions is likely to be hindered by COVID-19. This disease soon spread around the world and was declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11, 2020. In December 2019, a novel illness termed COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was reported in China. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh, E-mail: Jegede Oluwatoyin Imisioluwa, Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Nigeria, E-mail: Sherifdeen Bamidele Onigbinde, Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, E-mail: Fozia Farooq, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan, E-mail: remains a major global health burden, killing hundreds of thousands annually, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. “We are already seeing massive setbacks to tuberculosis, AIDS, and malaria care in many settings, because all the attention and resources are diverted to COVID-19”, he told The Lancet Microbe.Authors’ addresses: Abdullahi Tunde Aborode, Healthy Africans Platform, Research and Development Hub, Ibadan, NigeriaBrain Builder Initiatives, Research Directorate, Ilorin, Nigeria, E-mail: Kenneth Bitrus David, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom, and Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria, E-mail: Olivier Uwishema, Department of General Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey, E-mail: AgbendehLubem Nathaniel, BRAC James P. Madhukar Pai (McGill International TB Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada) is worried about what he terms as the “covidisation” of everything, highlighting how a narrow framework that focuses solely on health crises can be harmful to other areas of health and health-care agendas.
Thousands of people died during Liberia's 2014–16 Ebola virus crisis from other preventable diseases because they were unable to get care, and a similar scenario might result from the COVID-19 pandemic. The intense focus on COVID-19 might hinder the efforts and undo progress made in controlling other infectious diseases. What also shows no sign of abating is the ferocious reactive response to the pandemic-academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and governments alike have turned almost their whole focus to COVID-19 research, causing many health-care experts to fear that the management of other deadly diseases has been relegated to a much lower priority. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating, with WHO reporting 4♹ million cases and 322 000 deaths globally as of May 21, 2020.
The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
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