Communicable diseases and primary health care: the way forward

Overview

Universal health coverage (UHC) and the primary health care (PHC) approach are essential to reduce the enormous global burden of communicable diseases. Efforts to reduce the prevalence of these diseases, which include malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), are currently not on course to reach Sustainable Development Goal targets. However, the infrastructure, relationships and knowledge built by some communicable disease programmes can be important assets for strengthening PHC, particularly in reaching the world’s most vulnerable populations. To get the world back on track to sustainably reduce communicable diseases by 2030, and to ensure that services and interventions reach the most marginalised communities, these programmes need to be fully integrated into PHC approaches.