June 8, 2022 00:19
A leading global health expert has warned that growing food shortages may pose the same health threat to the world as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said in an interview Tuesday that the rise in food and energy prices, which came as a result of several reasons, may lead to the death of millions directly and indirectly.
“The lack of food does two things. One is that you face the tragedy of people already dying of starvation. And secondly, there is the fact that many more people are often severely malnourished, which makes them more vulnerable to existing diseases,” he added.
He said efforts to improve pandemic preparedness should not fall into the same “classic” mistake of being concerned only with crises that resemble the latest threat the world faced.
The World Health Organization estimates that 15 million people have died as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Sands said investment is needed to strengthen health systems to help prepare for the fallout from food shortages, which is part of the Global Fund’s mandate.
The fund, headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva, seeks to raise $18 billion to strengthen health systems, combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as deal with the effects of the pandemic.
Source: Reuters
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