Where are the funds to fight diseases that affect one billion poor people? | Planet of the future

More than a billion people worldwide suffer from one of the 21 tropical diseases considered neglected by the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet the funds and resources allocated to their prevention and treatment are negligible compared to other diseases. “The poorest are those who suffer the most, and when they are sick, they become even poorer,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), this Wednesday during an event in Madrid where Health experts from the Aneswad Foundation, Salud por Derecho, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and DNDi (the English acronym for Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) have called for more funds to stop these conditions. “They cause stigma, disability and sometimes lifelong pain,” added Antonio Leis, director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID).

The road map, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021, envisions that by 2030, “100 countries will eliminate at least one of these diseases, reducing the disability they cause by 75% and reducing the number of people with disabilities by 90%. for this reason they need medical attention,” explained Vanessa Lopez, director of the Salud Por Derecho Foundation. However, while the latest WHO report, dated 2023, pointed to progress such as eliminating one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in 50 countries, the 2030 target is a long way off, all experts agree.

“This is an extremely ambitious, idealistic road map, and frankly, in the remaining five years, we will not be able to achieve the vast majority of these goals,” criticized José Antonio Ruiz Postigo, a doctor at the WHO Global NTD Control Programme, pointing to the chiaroscuro. sectors. “We could use the Covid (pandemic) as the first excuse, which would paralyze all medical interventions that have nothing to do with Covid for two or three years,” he stressed. But the problem is much more serious: “No WHO Member State provides financial support to the Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases.”

We believe that if we had better and more neutral funding from Member States (WHO), we could do some things that we can’t do now.

José Antonio Ruiz Postigo, Doctor, WHO Global NTD Control Program

As an example, Ruiz Postigo reported that his division “lost 22 technical or medical jobs through either retirement or resignation,” without replacing them, to demonstrate the lack of global attention that NTDs receive. “It would be important for us not to be dependent on pharmaceutical companies” or other charities, he added. And then he opted for public funds: “We believe that if we had better and more neutral funding from Member States (WHO), we could do some things that we cannot do now.”

Among the many challenges to comprehensively addressing neglected tropical diseases, Francisco Bartolomé, an MSF expert on these diseases, highlighted the “supply challenge”. “Medicines for the treatment of NTDs are not cost-effective, which leaves us living in uncertainty because they may be discontinued or not produced at all unless a minimum quantity is requested from the company supplying them,” he criticized. As an example, Bartholomew spoke about snake bites. “The serum we provide for the most serious cases is no longer produced in South Africa,” explained the doctor, who described how he was forced to distribute the supplies they had at MSF via IV to areas of greatest danger until an alternative was found .

Poverty and other social determinants

“To fight neglected tropical diseases, we need to understand what is behind them, so that they overwhelmingly affect sub-Saharan Africa,” explained Iñigo Lasa, CEO of the Aneswad Foundation, an organization dedicated to diseases that can be seen in the skin. , because they are “the most stigmatizing.” The diagnosis shared by all experts is that social determinants such as poverty, lack of access to clean water or gender inequality determine who the people most often suffer from these diseases.

“How are you going to clean and heal a wound if you don’t have water?” – Lasa asked herself. And he highlighted the problem of lack of funds: “It is difficult for a person with little economic resources to buy medicine or go to a health center,” added the director of Aneswad, who, along with other organizations, is promoting the adoption of the resolution. at the next WHO world summit, which will make skin diseases a global health priority. “If approved, it will not be mandatory for states to provide additional funds, but it will be mandatory for WHO,” he said.

And while “the funds allocated to these diseases are disproportionately small based on what they require,” “they have a high impact,” said Isabela Ribeiro, director of the viral diseases group at DNDi. “An investment of one dollar (0.91 euros) results in a return of 465 dollars (426 euros),” he said.