PREFACE
“More than ever, we need to take a holistic perspective on human health” In this historic and transformative year that was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, never before has our mission – to make the world a healthier place – been more vital. Few of us could have foreseen the toll that COVID-19 would take on people’s health and well-being in all corners of the world. The pandemic will be remembered as one of the greatest challenges that we collectively faced as a society, but also as an era that heralded in immense scientific advancement and unprecedented international collaboration. As of May 2021, 150 million people were diagnosed with COVID-19, there have been over three million deaths, and likely many more cases and deaths have gone unnoticed. In many parts of the world, health systems have been overburdened and economies strained. Access to education has been interrupted for millions of children, poverty increased globally and the inequality gap widened. The enormous progress made in global health over the past 20 years regressed within mere months. Despite the devastating effects of the pandemic, there is a silver lining: the power of science and partnership has moved mountains in 2020. Within one year, approximately 100 COVID-19 vaccines reached various stages of clinical development and several of these vaccines successfully completed large phase III clinical trials and
are now distributed to millions of people every day. Society has seen a major commitment from health and social workers, inter-agency collaboration and high-levels of leadership from countries coming together to leverage their experiences. Communities have also come together like never before to support one another during these exceptional times. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), however, lag behind when it comes to access to essential interventions such diagnostics, protective equipment and vaccines. The strong domestic and international focus on COVID-19 also poses a risk that other diseases, particularly poverty-related infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and parasitic worm infections, become even more neglected. There is a pressing need for global action in order to mitigate the public health impact of the pandemic, especially for populations in LMICs (Read about the collateral damage of COVID-19 on pages 28 – 30). More than ever, we need to take a holistic perspective on human health – as we do at Swiss TPH. The coronavirus knows no borders: in the blink of an eye, it crossed the globe from China to Chile, from South Africa to Switzerland. Equitable access to diagnostics and vaccines is therefore not only a matter of solidarity, but also an act of common sense and self-protection,
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute 3
