Global Covid-19 news digest Africa’s health dilemma: Protecting people from Covid-19 while four times as many could die of malaria Experts across Africa are warning that as hospitals and health facilities focus on Covid-19, less attention is being given to the management of other deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which affect millions more people. “Today if you have malaria symptoms you are in big trouble because they are quite close to Covid-19 symptoms, will you go to the hospital when it is said we should not go there?” said Yap Boum II, the regional representative for Epicenter Africa, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders. “Hospitals are struggling because they do not have the good facilities and equipment; it will be hard to take in a patient with malaria because people are scared. As a result the management of malaria is affected by Covid-19,” Boum, who is also a Professor of Microbiology at Mbarara University of Sciences and Technology in Uganda, said, pointing out that HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis were also being ignored. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that four times as many people could die from malaria than coronavirus. “With Covid-19 spreading, we are worried about its impacts on health systems in Africa and that this may impact negatively on the delivery of routine services, which include malaria control. The bans on movement will affect the health workers getting to health facilities and their safety from exposure,” said Akpaka Kalu, team leader of the Tropical and Vector-borne Disease Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Africa. Mamadou Coulibaly, head of the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako, Mali, concurred that the pandemic was straining health systems in developing countries. He urged malaria-endemic countries not to disrupt prevention and treatment programmes. Abridged from IPS, 11 May 2020, https:// tinyurl.com/y7mqkgab
Q&A: How Kazakhstan’s transgender and lesbian women are being impacted by Covid-19 The coronavirus lockdown in Kazakhstan, and the resultant limited public oversight and limited publication engagement, has paved the way for the government to propose amendments to the country’s laws around gender that could see the exclusion of the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. Aigerim Kamidola, Legal Advocacy Officer, ‘Feminita’ Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative in Kazakhstan, spoke to IPS:
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Chain Reaction #139
May 2021
Inter Press Service (IPS): How has COVID-19 impacted the LBTQ community in Kazakhstan? Aigerim Kamidola (AK): We’ve seen two main trends in Kazakhstan regarding LBTQ populations: first one is that the general measures, policies and legislations [around] the state’s response to COVID-19 pandemic didn’t take the intersectional approach at the core of it. As a result, they exacerbated the pre-existing inequalities that disproportionately affected LGBTQ people. The second trend is measures that specifically target civil society and LGBTQ groups. Despite [the fact] that there was a state of emergency and the quarantine, when there was limited public oversight and civic and social engagement, the parliament and the government actually used the space to adopt certain legislation which actually targeted civil society groups. IPS: What are some ways in which Covid-19 has affected the health of the members of the LBTQ community in Kazakhstan? AK: With our allies from transgender initiatives, Feminita completed a big research project on access to healthcare of LBQ women and trans people in Kazakhstan in March. Because of the stigma by medical professionals, there’s a high resentment of the LBQT community for [asking for] medical help and that increases health risks. It’s not only HIV or STIs, which are normally spoken of, but also for other chronic disease and cancer-related diseases. As a result, it makes the group of people more susceptible to health risks [in the event of a] pandemic or other epidemiological diseases. IPS: Your organisation was denied registration as an NGO last year – how does this affect your ability to operate in the country and to serve the LBTQ community? AK: We recently received the supreme court decision upholding the previous court rulings, confirming that there was no violation in a denied registration. And it surely affects the organisation’s institutional development because as a non-registered organisation, you’re not eligible to open a bank account, or apply for funding and hence [unable] to maybe be more effective in responding to some urgent calls. As a result, the initiative operates with a small group of people – most of them work other jobs on the side. And they cannot pay the initial salaries, or operate sustainably or have sustainable activities. And that of course exacerbates in the pandemic. On the other side, we see a contraction of funding too and it is [being] channelled towards the needs of pandemic response or healthcare needs. Then there’s a contraction of resources to activists and civil society groups and human
