Disease eliminationIntegrated Approaches to Disease Elimination

By Simon Bland

Published 15 February 2021

The novel coronavirus pandemic has demanded an unprecedented, coordinated global response, which has culminated in increased global funding, and more importantly, increased attention to healthcare. But whilst efforts to produce and rollout effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in record time are being widely acclaimed, there is a danger that this focus on COVID-19 threatens to derail decades of progress in the control and elimination of preventable infectious diseases, including malaria, polio and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

The novel coronavirus pandemic has demanded an unprecedented, coordinated global response, which has culminated in increased global funding, and more importantly, increased attention to healthcare. But whilst efforts to produce and rollout effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in record time are being widely acclaimed, there is a danger that this focus on COVID-19 threatens to derail decades of progress in the control and elimination of preventable infectious diseases, including malaria, polio and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

To put this into context, research shows that since the start of the pandemic, more diagnostic tests have been developed for COVID-19 than for all 20 NTDs in the last 100 years. Current indications also suggest that NTD funding is being further reduced due to shrinking economies and reductions in international assistance, or the diversion of existing funding towards control of the pandemic.

This is potentially catastrophic for the 1 billion plus individuals currently affected by NTDs globally who have, and will continue to be left behind if we fail to act.

To avoid further resources being diverted away from preventable disease of poverty, we need to adopt a more integrated approach to disease control and elimination that cuts across multiple diseases, rather than focusing on each disease individually. Identifying the synergies between infectious diseases, including COVID-19, is key to achieving a more integrated healthcare system.  

Failing to do so may result in severe consequences. Take the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, nearly seven years ago, which devastated communities and placed excessive pressure on health systems. Guinea, where the first ever case of the virus in the region was reported, witnessed over 11,000 deaths in two years. As resources were channelled to tackling this new disease, cases of malaria over this period effectively tripled; in 2014, an estimated 74,000 cases of malaria went untreated in Guinea because clinics and health centres were shut as a consequence of the Ebola outbreak.

Not only was there a significant impact on treatment, but prevention efforts were constrained, too. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “a 10% disruption in access to effective antimalarial treatment in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to 19,000 additional deaths in the region.” This comes amidst a funding shortfall of nearly half of the desired $5.6bn to tackle malaria globally.