Under this title, Anup Shah analyses the reasons for millions of deaths caused by preventable diseases in the world and some possible tools to tackling it.
“Eleven million people in poor countries will die from infectious diseases this year. Put a different way, it means that by the time you finish reading this column 100 people will have died. Half of them will be children aged under five”. Larry Elliott, Evil triumphs in a sick society, Guardian, February 12, 2001.
Tuberculosis, malaria or simply measles are some of these preventable and curable diseases which cost far more lives than, for example, natural or man-made catastrophes, even thought a measles vaccine and safe injection equipment costs less than 1 US dollars. However, different from this issue, which is often missed by the mainstream media, catastrophes make headlines. There is a little difference with AIDS, which is getting the most attention due to the fact that it remains a threat to developed countries.
Which are the causes of people dying by preventable diseases? Ken Silverstein points out in an article called “Millions for Viagra. Pennies for Diseases of the poor” that “People died because the drugs to treat those illnesses are nonexistent or are no longer effective. They died because it doesn´t pay to keep them alive”.
Furthermore, as Shah points to, increased poverty and debt is resulting in forced cut-backs in health and education. To that, we have to add the cultural and traditional barriers, social issues and taboos that need to be overcome in some parts of the developing world, for treatments to be made readily accessible.
Serving as an example, Ann-Louise Colgan makes a good summary of the situation in Africa. As she says, a substantial progress was made in the 1960s and 1970s. African governments increased spending on the health sector, endeavoring to extend primary health care. However, with the economic crisis of the 1980s, African governments became clients of the World Bank and IMF and the loan conditions of these institutions forced contraction in government spending on health and other social services. By 1990s, most African countries were spending more repaying foreign debts than on health or education for their people.
Another important issue is the privatization in the health sector, recommended by the World Bank, and that has reduced access to necessary services, transforming health care from a public service to a private commodity. Not to mention the fact that private care is less effective at prevention, and is less able to cope with epidemic situations. Considering that infectious diseases constitute the greatest challenge to health in Africa, it is flawed.
Finally, which are the steps to follow in order to tackle this global issue?
According to Africa Action, an organization looking into political, economic and social justice for Africa, “a debt cancellation should be the first step. Additional resources to support health and education programs should be conceived as public investment, not new loans.”
Another important step is pharmaceutical companies focusing on prevention rather than cures. Prevention does not replace treatment, but it does reduce the number of people whose lives will depend on drugs. The problem with this last issue is that pharmaceutical companies judge that they would not get sufficient return on research investment.
Concluding, not until some causes and issues like poverty are addressed, will these steps have much effective impact.
