The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that it spent a total of $1.7 billion on essential supplies for the COVID-19 response around the world.
In a statement released yesterday in Geneva, WHO said that between 2020 and 2021, it led the largest-ever global response to a health crisis, working with 1600 technical and operational partners and helping to start the biggest, fastest, and most complex vaccination drive in history.
WHO also said that its advice is that the world’s first malaria vaccine, RTSS, be used by a lot of people and has been given to more than one million children. Also, the global health body said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, countries all over the world have made a lot of progress in health care.
WHO said that its Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator partnership had delivered more than one billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by January 2022. This seemed like a way to take stock of and evaluate its response to the global health emergency.
In a statement signed by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, it was said that the organization had sent around the world “nearly $500 million worth of personal protective equipment, $187 million worth of oxygen supplies, $4.8 million worth of treatments, and 110 million diagnostic tests.”
“The group spent $1.7 billion on supplies needed for the COVID-19 response. Even as WHO dealt with the worst global health crisis in a century, we kept helping our Member States deal with many other health threats, despite tight budgets and messed-up services.
“In the coming years, as the world continues to respond to and recover from the pandemic, WHO’s a top priority is to put even more money into our work in countries where it matters most,” he said.
“It is important for WHO to have stable, predictable, and flexible funding if we are to fulfill our mission to improve health, keep the world safe, and help the weak,” he said.
The statement, which was released before next week’s World Health Assembly, included details like the delivery of more than 1.4 billion doses of vaccines through the COVAX facility, the recommendation for the wide use of the world’s first malaria vaccine, and the WHO’s response to 87 health emergencies, including COVID-19.
WHO said, though, that there was still a lot to do for the world to reach its goal of every country vaccinating 70% of its population by July 2022.
Beyond the pandemic, the results report showed that important things had been done.
It said that 3.2 billion people in 58 countries have to follow rules that make it illegal to use trans fatty acids, which are dangerous food chemicals linked to heart disease.
The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has blamed the country’s lack of emergency preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic for most of the missed healthcare delivery goals.
It said that the situation had a small effect on the country’s 2030 goal of having no new infections, no discrimination, and no deaths from AIDS.
Yesterday, at the 6th National Council on AIDS, where the theme was “Innovative Approaches to HIV Epidemic Control and Programme Sustainability at State Level,” the Director-General of NACA, Dr.Gambo Aliyu, said that despite the effects of COVID-19, Nigeria still saw its biggest increase in the number of people getting HIV treatment, with close to 300,000 people living with HIV starting treatment in 2020.
“When I think back to two years ago when the 5th NCA was held in 2019, I realize how COVID-19 affected the economy and especially the community of people living with HIV/AIDS. This was because of inadequate emergency preparedness and response to COVID-19, long lockdown periods that led to hunger and malnutrition, patients who couldn’t get drugs, poor distribution of drugs to health facilities and health posts, and the risk of health workers getting COVID-19, which caused the economy to suffer.”
“This had a small effect on our goal for 2030 to have no new infections, no discrimination, and no deaths from AIDS,” he said.
Aliyu said that even though COVID-19 was happening, Nigeria saw the most growth in the number of people getting HIV treatment in the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 300,000 people living with HIV will start getting treatment in 2020, and existing HIV/AIDS coordination platforms and community structures will be strengthened to help with the COVID-19 response.
Aliyu said that the council’s discussions led to important policy changes that were based on a new way of thinking about sustainability.
“I hope that these policies, along with the different sub-themes, will help Nigeria control the HIV epidemic and keep programs going in communities at the state level, which is in line with global goals.
He said that some program managers at the State Agency for the Control of AIDS (SACA) who were also epidemiology officers were using drones to deliver ART drugs in some states to reduce the number of deaths in HIV/AIDS communities.
He also said that NACA’s toll line was used to keep people informed about good hygiene, and social distance, and to answer the public’s many questions.
Aliyu also said that the country was moving toward controlling the HIV epidemic and making programs last. He said that this was in line with the global agenda and was based on new ways to go beyond the 95:95:95 goals.
“We can all agree that stopping the HIV epidemic in Nigeria will take creative thinking, good planning, and resources from within the country to make it last.
The National Council on AIDS is a place where people can talk about how to help people with HIV and AIDS.
- Tags: Covid-19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
