new world Foundation international

DO YOU KNOW

·                    Thousands of people die everyday from infectious diseases. What will future generations think when they learn that most of these deaths could have been prevented? Infectious Diseases have a disastrous economic impact on developing countries. As well as the cost of treating patients, the economy suffers because patients are not able to work. There are longer term consequences too. Some infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B virus can simmer into long term (chronic) conditions. Others such as malaria, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis may harm the physical and mental development of children who are especially vulnerable to infection. Many cases are as a result of chronic infections.

 

·                    Malaria has for several years been a major problem. Its economic impact in sub-Saharan Africa is staggering. Beyond the human toll (it kills 1 million people every year) (UN reports, 2004); every year Africa loses an estimated £7 billion in GDP as a result of the disease (wellcometrust, 2004). Malaria diverts financial reserves into the purchase of drugs and insecticides, decreases income through sick leave and discourages foreign investment and tourism. It holds back and has a long term impact on their physical and mental development.

 

·                    Another infectious disease of interest is Chagas’ disease. In South America, a Brazilian study found that one in ten deaths in a group aged 25-65 years had heart disease directly associated with Chagas’ disease (caused by trypanosomes) and annual productivity loses due to chagas’ were estimated to be £140 million (wellcometrust, 2004).

 

·                    Every year more than 500,000 women die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, with huge regional disparities

 

·                    Since the epidemic began, AIDS has killed more than 21.8 million people--almost three times the population of Switzerland

 

·                    World hunger organizations estimate that nearly 1 billion people around the world are chronically hungry

 

·                    A child in Africa dies from malaria every 30 seconds

 

·                    Between 2005 and 2050, eight countries -- India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, the United States, Ethiopia, and China -- are likely to contribute half of the world's population increase.

 

·                    17 million children die from malnutrition and starvation each year

 

·                    There are 22 countries where more than half the population is illiterate. Fifteen of them are in Africa.

 

·                    Making more medicines seems like a good idea but where might they come from? Much of the technology and expertise needed to make medicines is to be found in pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Most pharmaceutical companies are based in developed countries which have different priorities such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Pharmaceutical companies argue that they can survive and produce more therapies if they can make profit.

 

·                    It takes around twelve years and costs around £350 million to bring a new drug to market and that’s if it ever gets there (wellcometrust, 2003). More than half of all pharmaceutical products that reach human clinical trials fail to progress because of their side effects. For example, In the past 25 years, a total of 1306 new medicines have been created only 11 were produced for infectious diseases in developing world (six of which were for animals) (wellcometrust, 2004).

 

·                    Of every 1000 babies born in the UK, 5 die from infectious diseases before they reach their first birthday. In Mozambique, nearly 200 babies out of every 1000 die within a year (UNFPA, 2005). The death of any young infant is a tragedy but why do 40 times as many Mozambican families suffer this painful loss.

 

·                    In 2003, according to the WHO, Infectious Diseases killed more than 13 million people a year (equivalent of almost two times the population of London) and leave many more with serious disabilities and/or in constant pain (WHO, 2003).

 

·                    Also, the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak of 2003 is a reminder that dangerous new infectious can emerge at any moment and disease can travel swiftly between continents on aircraft.

 

·                    Tuberculosis also accounts for 2 million deaths a year and it infects one-third of the world’s population (medinews, 2005).

 

·                    According to wellcometrust infectious diseases lab notes-5, In the 90 minutes it takes to play a game of football, 2400 people will die from treatable infectious diseases. 90% of these will be in developing countries.

 

·                    875 million adults cannot read or write. (That’s more than the entire population of Europe)- 95% of them live in developing countries and two-thirds of them are women (NEJM, 2005). This high level of illiteracy contributes to more than two-thirds of infectious disease cases because many of this sect of people claim ignorance of these diseases and there mode of transmission.

 

·                    3 million children die each year because they have not been vaccinated against preventable diseases like measles. That’s equivalent to ten jumbo jets crashing every day (wellcometrust, 2004).

 

With limited global resources available to deal with this problem, where should we focus our efforts? Should we develop new drugs and vaccines to combat these diseases? Or would we be better off addressing underlying social, cultural, environmental and economic problems? Should the rich do more to help the poor? Or are there enough solutions already but not enough political will and cooperation to implement them. New World Foundation will see to all these questions.