Poor people are likelier to fall ill, and take longer to recover, according to a newly released report by the Global Council on Inequality, Aids and Pandemics, titled Breaking the Inequality Pandemic Cycle: Building True Health Security in a Global Age.
Supported by UNAIDS, it exposes how poverty, gender inequality and social exclusion continue to drive pandemics like HIV, TB and mpox, while leaving the world dangerously unprepared for future outbreaks, reports TimesLIVE.
The authors call for urgent multi-sectoral action, from equitable access to medicines and economic reform to stronger community-led health systems and governance.
UNAIDS said the report provides a roadmap to tackle new and emerging health threats and to end existing crises like HIV and TB.
Inequality entrenches illness
South Africa remains one of the clearest examples of how inequality shapes health outcomes, with Deputy Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla saying poverty, poor living conditions and unequal access to health facilities exacerbate the crisis.
“Poverty increases vulnerability, not just in affording medicines, but even in having money for transport to clinics. We’re trying to make sure people get medicines delivered closer to their homes,” he said.
Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS and UN Under-Secretary-General, said the Global Council was established to understand why pandemics persist despite scientific progress.
“We need to deal with the debt crisis preventing governments from investing in health, and tackle address social determinants like housing and social protection, which build resistance to pandemics.
“There is so much innovation in science… we have complex systems for detecting and tracking outbreaks, yet we have one pandemic after another. We wanted to understand why we remain vulnerable,” she added.
Byanyima said after two years of research, the council had found that inequality, both within and between countries, makes the world more prone to pandemics.
Addressing financial barriers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is critical, she said.
Debt, resources and the vicious cycle
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, said pandemics both result from and reinforce inequality.
“If you don’t have resources, you can’t provide the medicines needed to prevent disease spread,” he said.
Equally important, without resources, you can’t prevent the increase in inequality.
“During Covid-19, the people who suffered most were the poor. It’s a vicious cycle, more poverty means more vulnerability to disease, which then deepens inequality,” he said, noting that during Covid-19, countries poured 20%-30% of GDP into keeping their economies afloat.
Last year, the Health Justice Initiative reported that South Africa struggled to protect its citizens’ health because it was bullied by big pharmaceutical companies demanding up to three times the price for vaccines compared with other countries.
Stiglitz cautioned against austerity as a response to debt.
The report urges governments to act on the lessons of HIV and Covid-19: that science alone cannot end pandemics, only justice and equality can.
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi welcomed the report, saying it talks to South Africa.
“When I saw the picture in front of the report, I saw South Africa. We are not necessarily the poorest country on this continent, but we are certainly the most unequal in the whole world.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA children’s suffering in poor areas worse during pandemic
How poverty, violence and inequality play a part in HIV risk
Racial inequities in health persist in SA
The demographic face of COVID-19 in South Africa — Johannesburg University
Good diet, social benefits, can halve TB infection – Indian study