Invincible Summer
24th November 2009, 23:36
This group was brought to my attention recently: http://www.essentialmedicine.org/
Ten million people die each year from diseases that have available cures. Tragically, the essential medicines to treat such diseases are lacking throughout much of the world. Nearly a third of humanity does not have regular access to essential medicines, and in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia this figure rises to over 50%. During the fifteen seconds it takes to read this paragraph, five people have died from preventable causes.
Moreover, many diseases affecting millions of the world’s poorest remain entirely overlooked. Countless people suffer in developing countries from sleeping sickness, lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, and other “neglected diseases,” because these destitute sick do not constitute a sufficient market opportunity to attract commercial research and development. In fact, only 10% of the Research & Development dollars go towards research into 90% of the world’s health problems.
The health burden facing millions in the developing world is of the most pressing moral issues of our time, yet also one of the most solvable. In this environment, universities have a critical role to play (http://www.essentialmedicine.org/?page_id=97).
More about their proposals and goals can be found here (http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/)
What are your thoughts? This is not revolutionary or radical, but the core ideas are very interesting, as they sort of target the negative aspects of private profiteering in the science/medical community.
Ten million people die each year from diseases that have available cures. Tragically, the essential medicines to treat such diseases are lacking throughout much of the world. Nearly a third of humanity does not have regular access to essential medicines, and in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia this figure rises to over 50%. During the fifteen seconds it takes to read this paragraph, five people have died from preventable causes.
Moreover, many diseases affecting millions of the world’s poorest remain entirely overlooked. Countless people suffer in developing countries from sleeping sickness, lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, and other “neglected diseases,” because these destitute sick do not constitute a sufficient market opportunity to attract commercial research and development. In fact, only 10% of the Research & Development dollars go towards research into 90% of the world’s health problems.
The health burden facing millions in the developing world is of the most pressing moral issues of our time, yet also one of the most solvable. In this environment, universities have a critical role to play (http://www.essentialmedicine.org/?page_id=97).
More about their proposals and goals can be found here (http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/)
What are your thoughts? This is not revolutionary or radical, but the core ideas are very interesting, as they sort of target the negative aspects of private profiteering in the science/medical community.