Global Food Crisis Will Lead to Millions of Deaths- Global Fund

Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (a major aid organization), has warned that the global food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, the halting of grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and maize, will kill millions by leaving the most vulnerable to infectious diseases.

"I think our next health crisis has begun," he added. It's not a new infection, but it does mean that people who are malnourished will be more susceptible to existing diseases."

The war and the disruption of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea caused supply shortages and starvation in low-income countries.

Sands told AFP that the indirect effects of food shortages mean that many will die not only from starvation but also from the weakening of their immune defenses against infectious diseases due to malnutrition.