-- Malaria afflicts more than one third of the human population and results in more than a million deaths per year, mostly children under five and pregnant women in developing countries.

-- The HIV/AIDS epidemic kills three million people annually.

-- Most of the 13 million deaths from infectious diseases each year could be prevented with known, relatively inexpensive interventions.

-- Measles sicken 30 – 40 million children each year despite a pennies-per-dose vaccine.

-- Road traffic injuries are the 9th leading cause of death world-wide.

-- Average life expectancy in Malawi fell from 45 years in 1990, to 40 years in 2000, and is projected to fall to 27 years by 2010.

Why should we care about these and similar statistics? Because good health is central for the promotion of development; the fight against poverty; and global security.

The key to improving global health lies in health research. Only by understanding the causes of disease, will we be able to design appropriate, cost-effective interventions. Yet, while more than 73 billion dollars are spent annually on health research, less than 10 percent of this is directed towards research on diseases effecting 90 percent of the world’s population, (i.e. those diseases and conditions that represent the heaviest burden on the world’s health).

Poor countries, in which the vast majority of the world’s population live, have lower average life expectancy, lower educational achievement, and higher unemployment. All of these result in poorer health status among the population which has a significant negative impact on growth and development and leads to a reduction in social and political stability.

Part of the difficulty in addressing health disparities between developed and developing countries comes from the fact that the global research agenda is determined largely by market forces in developed countries, rather than by needs in developing countries. Consequently, the products of research are skewed in favor of markets in developed countries to the detriment of developing country populations.

According to Selim Jahan, a Senior Advisor at the United Nations Development Program, “Of all the weapons of mass destruction, poverty is the most serious one. But it is slow and it is silent.”
If we fail to attend to the needs of those less well off, we will pay a high price. It is time to rise to the challenge. More information about what is being done to try to address the 10/90 gap can be found at the following website: http://www.globalforumhealth.org.

Carol Bender, Report on the Forum 7 Conference, Switzerland