At insidephilanthropy.com, Shai M. Dromi analyzes the spread of and public health response to COVID-19 in Africa by comparing it to the Ebola epidemic:
One of the most important lessons from the Ebola epidemic was that the additional stress on local healthcare facilities came at the expense of treatment for patients suffering from other diseases—in particular, chronic ones like HIV. The CDC estimates that more than 10,000 lives were lost during the epidemic to other diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. As hospitals overflowed with Ebola patients and healthcare workers succumbed themselves to the disease, little funding or working hands were available to treat those diseases. Philanthropists wanting to make an effective intervention during COVID-19 should turn to one of the most commonly neglected aspects of epidemic interventions: continuing healthcare for all medical conditions and supporting the local healthcare systems in affected countries. Not only will this strategy help patients in need during the pandemic, it will also help the country sustain its independent healthcare sector in the long run.