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COMMUNICABLE
DISEASES
More
than five million people die every year from AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis
in developing countries - over ten thousand people daily! HIV/AIDS alone
currently affects around 35 million people and there is still no cure for
them. In Africa, many schools are having to close because teachers,
voluntary workers and pupils suffer from one of these diseases. Hospitals
and day care centres are also affected as medical staff are similarly
affected.
Communicable
diseases know no national frontiers. Failure to combat them in one country
increases the risk of spreading the disease and recent resurgence of
tuberculosis in areas previously thought of as TB-free confirms this.
My
Report on "Accelerated action to combat communicable infectious
diseases" has sparked considerable interest and attracted wide
support from all political parties in the Parliament. It calls for a
significant increase in co-ordination between the different European
Commission Directorates (Trade, Development & Research) to implement a
global strategy that will provide additional funding for a comprehensive
programme to procure medication, build health infrastructure (day care
centres) and to train medical personnel so that those affected may access
treatment and return to work. The poor need a basic standard of health
services to ensure that they are fit enough to work as it is only through
their own local enterprise that they will break the cycle of dependency
and achieve self-reliance and esteem.
Funding
health services in developing countries is an important part of
alleviation of poverty in the world. It is easy for us to be emotive and
make political speeches promising millions in financial aid. The record so
far is poor - hardly any developed country offers the 0.7% of GNP as aid
as promised decades ago. It is simply cruel to raise aspirations of those
sick and dying and then fail to deliver. The cost for treating those
affected, detecting and treating those infected but not showing the
symptoms and prevention is enormous. Just for HIV/AIDS, the 35 million
affected would need USD 20 billion and more money would be required for
screening those infected and prevention. Therefore, it is important to
seek the co-operation of all the stakeholders in this venture.
Recently,
a number of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers have offered
antiretroviral medicines (for HIV/AIDS) to third world countries at
substantially reduced prices. Some have donated large sums for building
health infrastructure including support for prevention through by funding
education campaigns. Private corporations and trust foundations such as
the Bill Gates Foundation have funded country specific programmes for
combating these communicable diseases. Such offers of price reductions,
funding for prevention and treatment from private sources should be
acknowledged and encouraged. Therefore, cooperation between pharmaceutical
manufacturers, governments of both developed and developing countries,
NGOs and civil society are vital in implementing the global strategy to
combat communicable diseases.
How
can this co-operation be achieved?
1.
Ensure that there is adequate statutory protection of patents for new
products and financial incentives like tax exemption on future sale of new
vaccines so that pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to invest in
research and development of cheaper medicines and vaccines for the
diseases of the poor - such research is normally not a priority as the
commercial returns on investment are lower than for drugs that treat
diseases of the developed countries e.g. diabetes, blood pressure, ulcers,
cancer etc.
2.
Seek initiatives to attract adequate funding from the developed country
governments, oil-rich nation governments, private corporations, World
bank, IMF and others to support a global fund to combat these diseases.
3.
Use all means to persuade governments of developing countries to allocate
a substantial percentage of their national budgets to healthcare services
and establish appropriate medical infrastructure. They should not levy any
duty or local taxes on importation of essential medicines.
4.
Promote the establishment of a technical and legal working group in WTO to
assist developing countries in clarification, interpretation and
modification of international trade agreements including TRIPS.
5.
Encourage the WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS and International Red Cross to assist in
establishing essential drug lists specific to developing countries
according to their need.
My
initiative has been supported by Dr.Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of
the UN who has started the global fund. It has been supported by the
governments of UK, USA and other EU Member States as well as numerous
private trust funds such as the Bill Gates Foundation. This is good news
for the poor but I shall continue to fight for this cause until the battle
is won!
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