The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund released a report titled ‘State of Inequalities – HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria ’ stating that the poorest, least-educated and rural subgroups remain vulnerable to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
- The report takes a look at 32 health indicators from 186 countries on HIV, TB and malaria.
- India’s average on prevention of HIV, TB and malaria have improved in the past decade.
Aim – To document and understand the relation between inequalities and the fight against HIV, TB and malaria that kill more than 2 million people every year.
Note- This is the 1st monitoring report devoted to systematically assessing the global state of inequality in the 3 diseases of HIV, TB and Malaria.
Key Points:
i.There is a 20 percent gap in HIV testing between the poorest and richest households in 27 out of 48 countries with the gap having increased over time.
ii.There is no timely care for children below 5 years among the poor, rural groups with lower education levels.
About Global Fund:
i.The Global Fund of US$50 billion has been disbursed since 2002, in more than 155 countries to help needy communities.
ii.The Global Fund’s ‘Breaking Down Barriers initiative’, has removed human-rights related barriers to services like discrimination, gender inequality and violence, criminalization and socioeconomic marginalization.
WHO Report Analysis:
i.HIV testing of pregnant women increases to 64 percent from 40 percent, if HIV testing levels in poor and rich countries reach the same.
ii.The spending of majority income on TB-related diseases will come down from a weighted average of 61 percent to a potential average of 38 percent.
iii.Malaria would improve 26 percent when inequalities are reduced.
Note – In 2015, with the adoption of the United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world committed to end the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria by 2030 as part of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) – ‘Good Health and Well- Being’.
India’s performance – WHO Report
i.New TB cases have been reduced in India to 5.8 million people in 2020 from 7.1 million people in 2019.
- This reported the ‘largest relative reductions in annual notification’ at 25 percent between 2019 and 2020.
ii.India has reduced education-related inequalities where HIV testing for pregnant women between 15 and 19 years of age was 20 percentage points higher than pregnant women between the ages of 40 and 49 years in India.
Comparative Analysis of Other countries with India
i.New TB cases were primarily reported from the WHO South-East Asia Region, at 43 percent, and the WHO African Region, at 25 percent.
ii.Apart from India, cases reported in Indonesia (8.4 percent), China (8.5 percent), the Philippines (6 percent), Pakistan (5.8 percent), Nigeria (4.6 percent), Bangladesh (3.6 percent) and South Africa (3.3 percent).
iii.Eight countries accounted for more than two thirds of TB cases in which India account for 26.2%.
Note – People living with HIV accounted for 8 percent of new TB infections in 2020. Moreover, 1.3 million, who were HIV negative have died of TB, while 214,000 people living with HIV were affected with TB.
Recent Related News:
In October 2021, World Health Organisation (WHO) released the ‘Global TB Report’ for 2021, where it highlighted the effects of COVID – 19 which led to a huge reversal in the progress of tuberculosis (TB) elimination.
About World Health Organisation (WHO):
Director – General – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia)
Headquarters – Geneva, Switzerland
