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REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1366484
This article is part of the Research Topic Clinical Review of Neglected Tropical Diseases View all 7 articles

Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Neglected Tropical Diseases in India: A Perspective

Provisionally accepted
ILHAM ZAIDI ILHAM ZAIDI 1,2*Jagadeeswari Vardha Jagadeeswari Vardha 3Abdul Khayum Abdul Khayum 4Shikhar Chaudhary Shikhar Chaudhary 1Sahifa Anjum Sahifa Anjum 1Aditi Bakshi Aditi Bakshi 5Jasmeen Kaur Gill Jasmeen Kaur Gill 6
  • 1 Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, India
  • 2 International Society for Chronic Illnesses, New Delhi, India
  • 3 University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 4 JSS Medical College & Hospital, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysore, India
  • 5 IIHMR University, Jaipur, India
  • 6 Indian Institute of Public Health Delhi, New Delhi, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly challenged healthcare systems worldwide, particularly in India, a country already burdened with a high prevalence of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). This perspective examines the pandemic's direct and indirect impacts on the prevalence, diagnosis, and management of NTDs in India.Using a narrative review approach, we analyzed literature published between January 2020 and September 2023 from databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, along with grey literature. The focus was on studies reporting the pandemic's influence on NTDs, especially among vulnerable populations in both rural and urban settings.The review incorporated 49 studies, revealing a twofold impact of COVID-19 on India's healthcare. Directly, the surge in COVID-19 cases strained healthcare resources, disrupted services, and overwhelmed healthcare personnel. Indirectly, the pandemic exacerbated the burden of NTDs by delaying diagnoses, limiting access to treatment, and redirecting resources toward pandemic response efforts.These findings highlight the urgent need for resilient healthcare strategies that address both the immediate and long-term impacts of the pandemic on NTDs. By understanding and mitigating these effects, policymakers and public health experts can better protect vulnerable populations from the compounded challenges posed by these neglected diseases.

    Keywords: Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), COVID-19 pandemic, Healthcare systems and management, low-and middle-income countries (LMIC)

    Received: 06 Jan 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 ZAIDI, Vardha, Khayum, Chaudhary, Anjum, Bakshi and Gill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: ILHAM ZAIDI, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.