16 February, 2022
The World Health Organisation have recently announced that health services across the world are still facing disruption nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. It is stated that over 90% of countries have felt the challenge of the pandemic on essential health services, (WHO). The world’s population depends on reliable and accessible healthcare. It has now been announced that over 90% of countries that the WHO surveyed are struggling with these services.
All services provided by health professionals have felt this strain, although there are some major services that have had more disruption than others and struggled to operate more so since the pandemic began. The major services that have faced disruption include sexual health, immunisation, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. These are key to a healthy and happy lifestyle for service users and it is the World Health Organisation’s aim to allow health clinics to run at full capacity once again, without the workforce facing exhaustion. These services being unavailable for the general public during the pandemic has created a large, unmanageable backlog for local health professionals.
There are many serious health issues that will arise with patients if they have not been treated in a timely manner with health problems. For example:
Sexual Health
If a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) or Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) is left untreated, there can be serious health consequences including ‘blindness and other neurologic manifestations, infertility, or birth defects’, (WHO)
Immunisation
With the drop of immunisation, it is lowering the protection of the community, allowing diseases to spread quickly and infect more people, (NHS).
HIV
If HIV is left untreated, it will progress into AIDs. When an individual has AIDs, it means the immune system has been severely damaged and the individual is more likely to develop opportunistic infections or cancers which will be more life threatening to the individual, (Mayo Clinic).
Tuberculosis
Without treatment in a timely manner, tuberculosis can be fatal. Untreated active diseases affects the lungs. Tuberculosis can also create severe spinal pain, (Mayo Clinic).
These diseases cannot go undetected for long amounts of time. To properly supply health care to the world’s population, accurate and reliable testing needs to be implemented within the sector. Fortress Diagnostics offers testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV, and Tuberculosis. For more information on these tests, please click the links. If you wish to speak to a member of our Sales Team, please email marketing@fortressdiagnostics.com
