E-drug: WHO'S Massive Effort Not Aggressive Enough
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Author: Daniel BERMAN at MSF-GENEVA
MSF Press Release:
WHO'S "MASSIVE EFFORT" IS NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH SAYS
M�DECINS SANS FRONTI�RES
Geneva, 4 October 2000 - -WHO's new "Massive Effort" to address
HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria is based on a faulty premise,
according to comments made today by M�decins sans Fronti�res at the
United Nations Geneva headquarters. MSF disagreed with WHO's claim
that "each death [from these three diseases] can be avoided with low
cost technologies that are available today." The "Massive Effort"
advocacy campaign is being discussed this week with more than 80 NGOs
in Winterthur, Switzerland. It is a response to the G8's new global
battle against infectious diseases, announced at Okinawa last July.
"Although we appreciate that WHO is raising awareness about the
dramatic impact of communicable diseases in developing countries and
the need for prevention, we believe that the current emphasis on
'existing interventions' misleads the public into thinking that we
already have the answers," said James Orbinski, President of MSF's
International Council. "In fact, many effective medicines are either
too expensive or don't exist. We think WHO's emerging plan fails to
challenge the status quo."
MSF strongly supports many of WHO's proposed solutions, such as bed
nets for malaria prevention and additional funding for the current TB
strategy (DOTS), but called on WHO to be more ambitious in the short
and middle-term. WHO's approach to Aids was cited as an illustration
of the problem.
In its analysis to battle Aids, WHO outlines a series of prevention
strategies and mentions the need to treat opportunistic infections.
However, the drug cocktails (antiretrovirals) that have caused Aids
deaths to plummet in wealthy countries are described as too expensive
to consider for developing countries. In light of the fact that
triple drug therapy can now be purchased for USD 800, MSF spoke of a
moral obligation to begin treating patients where possible. Right now,
some countries, such as Uganda, Ivory Coast and El Salvador are
committed to expanding their Aids programs. MSF insists that these
countries should receive assistance from WHO to secure affordable
quality drugs.
"We also need WHO to emphasize the fact that research and development
is at a standstill for the diseases that most affect people in poor
countries. We think that this message should be a critical part of
the Massive Effort advocacy campaign being launched this week in
Winterthur," said Orbinski. "Some of the public/private partnerships
to find new drugs for TB and malaria may eventually yield results but
the current level of activity needs to be dramatically increased. It
is WHO that should be challenging national governments to ramp up
public sector research for diseases that have been abandoned by the
multinational drug industry."
Of the 1,223 new drugs brought to market between 1975 and 1997, only
13 are indicated to treat tropical diseases. In a time when the
private sector has shifted resources to more lucrative lifestyle
diseases such as baldness and obesity, governments must fill this
void.
Communicable diseases are responsible for 60 percent of the total
disease burden in developing countries and kill 5.5 million people
each year. World-wide 34 million people are infected with HIV, one
person dies every 30 seconds from malaria and nearly one billion
people will be newly infected with TB over the next twenty years.
For further information please call Daniel Berman at +41 79 286 9649
Daniel Berman
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
MSF
daniel_berman@geneva.msf.org
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