UN General Assembly: Progress in global health points the strategy to a safer world – opinion

September 19, 2024

As the world gathers this week for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the deal with the interconnected crises facing the world highlights a critical truth: today’s challenges are inextricably linked to global health. A lot of key General Assembly events – including the high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance and the Future Summit to reaffirm commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – highlight the urgent needn’t only to reply to immediate health crises but additionally to deal with their causes.

From climate change displacing communities and increasing exposure to disease, to antimicrobial resistance undermining many years of medical progress, the challenges we face are complex and interconnected. However, our experience within the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious diseases is instructive. Over the past 20 years, investments within the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and in improving health and social care systems in low- and middle-income countries have saved thousands and thousands of lives and helped create a more just world. This experience shows us that the trail to a safer and more stable world lies through global health.

Over the past twenty years, global efforts to combat these three diseases have achieved remarkable results. In 2001 – the 12 months before the Global Fund was established – AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria killed a staggering 4.6 million people worldwide. A brand new report from the Global Fund shows that the variety of deaths has fallen by about half, to 2.4 million. Between 2002 and 2019, global inequality in life expectancy across countries fell by one third. Half of this decline was accounted for by reduced mortality from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

A brand new report shows that over the past 20 years, efforts to combat these three diseases have saved 65 million lives in countries where the Global Fund invests. In these countries, the combined death rate from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria fell by 61% over the identical period.

These should not extraordinary numbers. Each of the 65 million human lives saved is a member of the family, friend, neighbor, teacher, worker. Every life saved has a multiplier effect on families, communities and whole nations. Any infection prevented not only improves people’s health, but additionally reduces the burden on health systems, promoting economic stability and supporting social cohesion.

While saving thousands and thousands of lives is a big achievement, there is evident evidence that fighting HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and constructing health systems and communities has advantages beyond reducing deaths. Sharp reductions within the incidence of those three diseases lead to reduced time away from work or school and overall improvements in community health and well-being. For example, in 2023, investments in HIV in countries where the Global Fund invests freed up 174 million hospitalization days that might otherwise have been used for HIV-related activities and prevented 154 million outpatient visits, generating savings of 9.5 billion dollars.

Despite these hard-earned achievements and the remarkable recovery from the setbacks attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic, the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria shouldn’t be yet over. The confluence of crises is hampering progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3 to eliminate these three diseases by 2030 and risks widening global health inequalities.

Climate change is destabilizing the foundations of human health, causing extreme poverty and the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. It is the best global health challenge of our time and a rapidly growing threat to efforts to defeat the three diseases.

Sirajul Islam wades through a flooded area along with his 6-year-old daughter Sumaiya near where their family home once stood, within the village of Sreeula, Bangladesh. Every 12 months, a whole lot of hundreds of individuals in Bangladesh leave their homes as a consequence of climate disasters and settle in cities, where inadequate hygiene and crowded conditions can promote the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases. Photo: © UNICEF/UNI424978/Sokhin

Intense conflict, a deepening humanitarian crisis and political turmoil in lots of countries are disrupting HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs and undermining health systems, with devastating consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The growth of interconnected anti-rights and anti-rights movements, combined with the shrinking of civic space, prevents those most in danger from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria from receiving the services they need.

Antimicrobial resistance increases the danger of humanity confronting pathogens which can be proof against life-saving medical tools, undermining the effectiveness of antibiotics and coverings for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and threatening the lives of billions of individuals.

These challenges are truly enormous. But the extraordinary achievements within the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria – saving thousands and thousands of lives and livelihoods and saving billions of dollars in health care costs – prove that fighting these diseases makes the world fairer and higher prepared to face up to and reply to current challenges. and current challenges and emerging threats.

Strengthening our response to HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other serious infectious diseases is an urgent necessity in today’s difficult context of interconnected crises.

A key element of this response is constructing equal access to innovation. Implementing market shaping strategies to make sure equitable and reasonably priced access at scale is critical to making sure that biomedical innovations reach the individuals who need them as quickly as possible.

To speed up progress, we also must significantly scale up investment, strengthen political will, and address human rights and gender-related health barriers. Failure to accomplish that risks perpetuating the specter of infectious disease, costing lives and placing an undue burden on fragile healthcare systems.

Discussions on the United Nations General Assembly provide a platform to revitalize international cooperation and engagement. When United Nations member states seize the chance to speed up progress within the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, they’ll have the opportunity to concurrently strengthen health resilience world wide and be certain that health systems are prepared to fulfill evolving global health challenges. By taking daring motion now, we are able to end these diseases and construct a healthier, safer and more equitable world for all.

This article was originally published on Forbes.