|
News from the John E. Fogarty International Center
FIC 35th Anniversary Symposium
Focuses on Global Health: A Challenge to Scientists
Investing more to improve the health of everyone on the planet
is a task that policymakers and biomedicine must tackle, both on
humanitarian and self-interest grounds, said speakers at the FIC
Symposium on Global Health at the NIH on May 20–21. The need
to act has never been more urgent, with such devastating illnesses
as malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS on the rise and the potential
for new diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
to spread worldwide. As NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., said
at the symposium, which honored FIC's 35th anniversary, the world
has become "a village, and we need to energize and synergize our
actions around the globe."
 FIC
Director Gerald Keusch, M.D., told the symposium attendees that
the potential to advance world health has never been better. We
are living in extraordinary times given our ability to diagnose,
prevent, and treat disease, he said. Despite this, many parts of
the world are seeing a decline in life expectancy as people increasingly
succumb to infectious and parasitic diseases and to noninfectious
ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, injuries, and suicide.
"This is just not good enough," said Dr. Keusch, and he added that
health policymakers and researchers around the world should cooperate
on new and expanded ways to improve health globally. "Each of us
can do a great deal when we act alone, but by acting together, we
can accomplish an enormous amount," he said.
Children in poorer nations suffer disproportionately from illnesses
that are preventable, treatable, or even curable. Kul Gautam, Ph.D.,
Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF, noted that of every 100 children
born, 8 would probably die before their fifth birthday. Daily, 2,000
children die from measles and 4,000 die from simple diarrhea. "These
statistics are a cause for shame and outrage," he said. "What is
really lacking is not resources, but vision, leadership, and the
right priorities."
Public and private sectors spend more than $70 billion annually
on health research, yet only 10 percent of the money covers 90 percent
of global health problems according to a 1996 World Health Organization
report.
Although research organizations such as FIC are working to change
this picture by sponsoring projects in over 100 countries, health
interests must focus substantially more attention and resources
on the developing world, the speakers said.
 Not
only is the response to current health problems inadequate, new
diseases continue to develop and spread around the globe with lightning
speed. SARS broke out in rural China and infected people in 28 other
countries within months. But SARS also shows what a concerted global
response can effect. Addressing the symposium audience, World Health
Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, M.D., M.P.H.,
hailed the international community's success at quickly dampening
the spread of SARS, saying, "This is global health at its best."
Dr. Brundtland added, "Now we should apply the same energy, same
commitment, and necessary resources . . . to curb the threat of
less newsworthy public health threats." She added, "We know we must
invest more. Global health not only matters; it is the way forward."
Aside from the success at slowing the spread of SARS, health groups
have made headway in the past few years in many other areas. For
instance, the price of AIDS drugs fell, making them accessible to
many more of the afflicted. Policymakers in developed countries,
including the Group of Eight industrial democracies, are also giving
global health issues more prominence. Also, new world health financing
mechanisms are being developed, including the WHO's Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The Global Fund attracts
and disburses additional resources for these key illnesses via partnerships
between governments, the private sector, and affected communities.
Since it opened in May 2000, the Fund has raised more than $1.5
billion to cover 153 programs; however, contributions are lagging
and approved funds are not being sent to the countries.
Several conference attendees stressed the need to improve world
health as a means to economic development. Harold Varmus, M.D.,
former NIH Director and now President at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, said that in the past couple of years "there has
been an increased appreciation that better health can be a determinant
of economic improvement." Especially in developing countries, making
people healthier is an effective way of aiding the economy, for
instance, by avoiding lost workdays and raising the energy levels
of workers.
Dr. Varmus said advancing health in developing nations will require
additional resources, including imaginative new programs supported
by both governments and private groups, well-financed centers for
conducting research, improved communication, free distribution of
scientific literature, and a global science corps of senior researchers
willing to spend a year or two in a developing country research
institution to help improve the way science is conducted.
FIC supports research in priority global health areas and also
develops human capital and research capacity in the poorest nations
of the world. Many speakers called for the establishment of more
centers in afflicted nations and further training of local people.
Sir David Weatherall, M.D., F.R.C.P., Emeritus Regius Professor
of Medicine at the University of Oxford and Fogarty Scholar in Residence,
said this task of bringing health research to developing nations
would not be easy. "It's very difficult for outsiders to go into
any country with a recipe of what should be done. It has to be a
very gradual process."
 This
sentiment was echoed by William Makgoba, Ph.D., Former President,
South African Medical Research Council, and currently Vice Chancellor
at the University of Natal, who stressed the need for western organizations
to initiate partnerships with developing countries to ensure that
western scientists understand the culture, language, and needs of
the host nation.
Some speakers called for more efficient delivery systems, for instance,
ensuring that pharmaceutical drugs do not end up on the black market.
Other speakers emphasized the need to reward intellectual property
rights, encourage more private participation, and foster increased
cross-discipline research.
The symposium attendees congratulated FIC on its achievements
during the past 35 years and hailed Congressman John E. Fogarty
of Rhode Island—after whom the center is named—for championing
imaginative health legislation and promoting an international research
agenda. James Crowley, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Brown University,
who knew Fogarty in his childhood, spoke of the lawmaker's vision.
"In 1947, Fogarty became convinced that the promotion of world health
by the U.S. should be the paramount goal of our foreign policy,"
a position that was not popular in those days, although it is more
widely understood today.
Dr. Crowley added that the legislation Fogarty promoted before
his death at age 53 "has had a profound effect on extending the
lives and improving the health of people in this country and around
the world. The world owes him a great debt of gratitude."
We are interested in hearing from you. Please feel free to contact
Irene Edwards at edwardsi@mail.nih.gov.
^ TOP OF PAGE
|
