Diagnostics can advance health SDGs in Asia Pacific in 2023

COVID-19 demonstrated that diagnostics are crucial in healthcare management Michelle Medeiros writes.

We’re nearing the halfway mark of our ambitious Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) for healthy well-being and good health in 2030. While most agree that we were progressing toward this goal however, nobody could have predicted that we’d be faced with massive disruptions due to the spread of a pandemic.

Initiatives to limit progress in the fight against COVID-19 and the additional pressures placed for the health system hinder progress towards SDG3. HIV HIV services are being disrupted, as the number of TB deaths increased to the highest level since. The majority of deaths due to the malaria in 2020 as compared to 2019 were due to the disruption in the delivery of malaria treatments in the midst of the pandemic.

Apart from COVID-19 there is also the newly declared public health emergency that is of international concern Mpox and the recently-discovered Langya disease. What can we do to make an enduring recovery towards healthcare-related SDGs in order to ensure that we’re able to advance in other disease areas in spite of another epidemic?