The developing world is in the midst of a health tragedy that urgently requires new solutions.
More than 1 billion people are affected by diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and sleeping sickness each year. Ten million people die from these diseases annually. Millions more are so incapacitated by disease that they are unable to work, care for themselves, or care for their children.
Over the past two decades, increased attention to this problem has brought with it desperately needed funding and a bevy of potential solutions. Billions of dollars have been directed towards strengthening health systems and the purchase and delivery of life-saving drugs and vaccines. Pediatric formulations of effective malaria drugs, and vaccines for pneumonia, diarrhea, and cervical cancer have all become available in the just the past few years.
Yet the crisis is still acute, and our Web site cannot cover the full scope of the problem. For more information about global health, we suggest the following resources:
Why We Need More R&D
For many neglected diseases, there are no vaccines to prevent these diseases, no diagnostics to determine who has these diseases, and no drugs to cure them. The greatest health systems in the world are not much help to a patient suffering from a disease for which there is no treatment.
The Example of Chagas Disease: How More R&D Can Save Lives
It is estimated that 8 - 9 million people in the Americas are currently infected with Chagas disease, with 41,000 new cases each year. Despite these staggering statistics, the current drugs have considerable toxicity, and are only effective in the acute and early chronic disease and in congenital cases. Because Chagas disease can be asymptomatic for many years, the majority of patients are diagnosed late in the chronic phase when treatment is no longer possible. To save the lives of the 8 - 9 million people infected with Chagas disease, new drugs and better diagnostics must be developed.
It can sometimes seem like the need is overwhelming but progress is being made. Through the work of BIO Ventures for Global Health and many, many others, the pipeline for new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics is growing, although it is still insufficient to meet current needs.