The people and politics driving global health.
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By DANIEL PAYNE
Today is the last Global Pulse newsletter. It has been a pleasure to deliver a weekly dose of news about the people and politics driving global health policy. But don’t worry, when it comes to health care news and trends, we have you covered! Check out our other health-focused newsletters, POLITICO Pulse, which provides daily news and analysis of our immediate health care policy battles and challenges, and Future Pulse for chronicling the longer-term forces reshaping health care in the U.S. and around the world.
Many low-income countries now see the knock-on effects of the pandemic as the bigger public health problem to be solved. | Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
CRISIS BEGETS CRISIS — Well over two years into the pandemic, the biggest impacts of Covid-19 are just now coming to light — often not directly caused by the virus.
Health organizations have measured the pandemic’s effects on other health goals, including to stop tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria and other diseases, as well as to continue and increase routine childhood vaccinations.
Even with the strictest Covid-19 measures now lifted, the results concern health leaders.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, total deaths worldwide increased by more than 15 million — and most of these were not just directly caused by the COVID-19 disease, but also by its indirect effects of disruptions to health care systems and local economies,” Atul Gawande, USAID’s assistant administrator for global health, told Global Pulse in a statement. “The result has been the first reduction in global life expectancy in more than a century.”
Years of slowing progress
Routine childhood vaccinations declined dramatically through the pandemic, resulting in the lowest coverage in 30 years, according to a WHO and UNICEF report.
Though many health experts expected backsliding in 2020, through extensive lockdowns and attention shifting to Covid-19, the decline in progress continued — though slowed — in 2021, a trend confirmed in a similar report from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
And it’s not just routine vaccinations. A recent U.N. report, titled In Danger, outlined the slowing progress in HIV responses through the pandemic, including in Asia, which saw cases increase for the first time in a decade.
Some disease responses were not affected as much as others, but the impacts have been felt broadly, especially in low-income countries.
“At the outset of Covid, there was an acute fear in the malaria community that we’d lose 15 years of historic progress,” Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More, told Global Pulse. “We certainly avoided the worst-case scenario, but it is the fact that, for the first time in the 15-year history of (the President’s Malaria Initiative), deaths and cases from malaria are on the rise.”
Not just low-income countries are affected. Diagnostic and therapeutic work in wealthier nations was stalled for many diseases, leading to fears that the pandemic could cause slowed or reversed progress in reducing cancer deaths in the coming years.
Shifting the Covid response
The new reports, warning global health progress could continue faltering without intervention, echo concerns of health workers on the ground around the world — several of whom have been wondering why Covid-19 response money isn’t being put toward more urgent needs, your host reported in a new story this morning.
And some resources for Covid-19 have already begun shifting to other needs, where it’s allowed.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was a vehicle for Covid-19 responses, setting up a separate fund for the pandemic, which could be used to directly address the virus or its indirect effects.
At the pandemic’s start, countries used most of that funding for efforts directly related to Covid-19, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, told POLITICO. Now, though, countries have shifted to spend most of that money to address the pandemic’s knock-on effects.
“In many of the poorest countries in the world, the kind of unfinished pandemics of HIV, TB and malaria kill more people and are a greater burden on the communities than Covid-19,” he said. “The world has a way … of focusing on whatever the new threat is — particularly a big one that poses a threat to people living in rich countries.”
WELCOME TO THE LAST EDITION OF GLOBAL PULSE, where we hope you’ll keep in touch — and continue sending tips — to [email protected].
Global Pulse is a team effort. Thanks to editors Eli Reyes and Barbara Van Tine. Follow us on Twitter: @_daniel_payne and @carmenpaun.
MONKEYPOX DEATHS IN BRAZIL, INDIA, SPAIN — The first monkeypox deaths outside of endemic regions have been reported.
Brazil reported one death late last week. Spain reported two deaths soon after, POLITICO’s Lili Bayer wrote, and India announced one on Tuesday.
Health leaders emphasize the relative rarity of dying from the virus, highlighting the promising vaccines and therapeutics already in use — at least where supply is sufficient. In Spain, about 3 percent of people with reported cases are hospitalized.
Endemic countries — including Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo — have reported deaths from the disease in the past, the WHO has said.
The virus continues to spread, with more than 25,000 cases worldwide reported, according to the CDC.
NEW YORK POLIO SAMPLE LINKED TO ISRAEL, U.K. — The sample of poliovirus found in New York State wastewater is genetically linked to samples taken in Israel and the U.K., the state’s department of health said Monday.
That does not imply the individual case in New York came from someone who traveled internationally, the department said, noting it’s likely the vaccine-derived poliovirus originated outside the U.S.
Community spread of the virus is still a concern, and the state’s health department urges vaccination for anyone who hasn’t gotten the shot yet.
9 PERCENT
The decrease in global Covid-19 cases over the last week, according to the WHO’s Wednesday update.
IAS TAPS NEW PRESIDENT — Sharon Lewin was named the new president of the International AIDS Society on Tuesday, taking over the position from Adeeba Kamarulzaman as she steps down.
Lewin is an infectious diseases doctor from Australia, now helming the organization amid significant challenges for efforts to end AIDS — including a slowdown (and sometimes a reversal) in progress through the pandemic.
“I like to take a more optimistic view,” she said in a statement outlining her vision for the disease response. “I think we should focus on the unprecedented investments in public health we have seen across the globe over the past two-plus years. Let us capitalize on the global surge in awareness around infectious diseases and their impact on human rights.”
A new push to stop AIDS in children includes expanded testing, treatment and prevention. | AP Photo/Fareed Khan
NEW ALLIANCE TO END AIDS IN CHILDREN — The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNICEF and the WHO are launching an effort to end AIDS in children by 2030, the groups said Monday.
The coalition, with help from the Global Fund, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and 12 African nations, look to boost treatments for and prevent infections in pregnant and breastfeeding people, as well as expand care for infants, children and adolescents.
The goal to end AIDS in children by 2030 comes as experts emphasize the post-pandemic challenges of the standing target: ending the AIDS pandemic more broadly in the same timeframe.
NEW VACCINES ON THE HORIZON? — Two major players in the mRNA vaccine space are setting their sights on other key diseases: monkeypox and malaria.
BioNTech is working on a malaria vaccine based on its mRNA platform. Human trials are planned for later this year, a spokesperson told Global Pulse. The move comes after the company’s plan to expand mRNA vaccine manufacturing worldwide with small, mobile factories — including in regions that see a significant amount of malaria.
Meanwhile, Moderna is exploring the development of a monkeypox vaccine. The effort is in early, preclinical stages, and it’s unclear whether the vaccine would use the company’s mRNA platform or another technology.
EU BUYS HIPRA COVID VACCINE — The European Commission has closed a deal for up to 250 million doses of the protein-based vaccine from the Spanish pharmaceutical company HIPRA, POLITICO’s Carlo Martuscelli reports.
The vaccine, though it’s still being assessed, can be stored at relatively higher temperatures compared with mRNA vaccines and is designed to protect against the alpha and beta versions of Covid-19.
Nature: AI predicts shape of nearly every known protein
The Economist: Despite setbacks, HIV can be beaten
Devex: New agreements cut price for short-course TB treatments to under $20
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