The report helps to understand how inequality is preventing the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Inequality is widely recognized as a barrier to achieving global and national goals and goals in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs. However, the magnitude and extent of underlying health inequality remains well documented and ununderstood.

Until those inequality are better identified and the results are better understood, it will be difficult for the program to meet people’s true health needs.Now, for the first time, a new report from the World Health Organization and the World Fund for the Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria systematically assesses the world. Inequality: HIV, tuberculosis, malaria..

This report represents an important step in understanding how inequality is hindering the fight against the three illnesses. Using the latest global data available for 32 health indicators in 186 countries, the national average of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria indicators has improved largely over the last decade, but is the poorest and lowest education level. It turns out that the local subgroups still tend to be at a disadvantage. Most HIV, tuberculosis and malaria indicators.

Great progress has been made to expand medical services and prevention efforts, but we are reaching the poor, rural, and least educated people who are at the mercy of these illnesses. I have to focus more on. “

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes, Secretary-General of WHO

The report, for example, the data available on men’s HIV testing shows that there is a gap of at least 20% between the poorest and wealthiest households in 27 of 48 countries, and that gap increases over time. It shows that it is. Many families affected by tuberculosis spend a significant amount of their income on tuberculosis-related costs, especially if their households are poor. According to data from 21 countries, 20-92% of households spend at least one-fifth of their income on tuberculosis-related costs. For malaria, the poorest, least educated, and rural groups reported low levels of timely care for children under the age of five with fever.

High sexual inequality is also quantified in the report. For HIV, more than half of the countries report that men use more condoms than women. HIV testing was significantly higher in females than in males in one-fifth of the countries.

“A pandemic thrives on inequality and exacerbates inequality. We learned this from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and saw it again at COVID-19,” said Peter Sands, Managing Director of the World Fund. I am. “To tackle inequality, we need to go beyond the simple notions of equal access and universality to deliberately create“ compensation inequality ”in service delivery and focus resources on the most vulnerable. The community is at the center of the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, by further focusing on removing barriers to human rights-related medical services. “

Despite the challenges, the report shows cases where inequality is low or the gap is narrowing through a faster improvement in the scope of intervention between disadvantaged population subgroups. Encouragingly, some countries have reported high ownership of pesticide-treated bed nets among the poorest households. Malaria prophylaxis Efforts are targeted at disadvantaged groups and are profitable.

The report also shows the impact of eliminating inequality in improving the national average of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. For example, if a country improves the level of HIV testing in all pregnant women to the level of the wealthiest subgroup, the overall level of testing will increase from 40% to 64%. The proportion of families facing the catastrophic costs of tuberculosis is reduced by at least 50% in half of the country (from the current weighted average of 61% to a potential average of 38%). In the case of malaria, families seeking care for children under the age of five with fever mean that eliminating economic inequality will increase the weighted average of 28 countries by 26%.

The report calls for more and better editing of data on inequality. A global assessment of WHO 2020 national data and health information systems found that only half of the 133 surveyed countries included data decomposition in their national health statistics reports.

It also calls for regular and dedicated monitoring of inequality in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. This should be complemented by other quantitative and qualitative studies. WHO has developed a package of tools and resources for monitoring inequality and continues to support countries for capacity building in this area.

Since 2002, the Global Fund has paid more than US $ 50 billion to more than 155 countries to support the most deprived communities.Through that Breaking down barrier initiativesOver the past few years, the World Fund has expanded its programs to remove human rights-related barriers to services such as discrimination, gender inequality and violence, criminalization and socio-economic alienation. This work, coupled with increased investment in the least serviced medical services, will benefit the national average and bring countries closer to their goals and goals.