Global S&T Development Trend Analysis Platform of Resources and Environment
Innovation and Investment Are a Pressing Need to Fight Malaria | |
admin | |
2019-12-17 | |
发布年 | 2019 |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | 法国 |
领域 | 地球科学 |
正文(英文) |
To control diseases, mosquito nets are distributed to the inhabitants of Kisumu by staff from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
After several years of decline, malaria is seeing a resurgence. Following the Sixth Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which was recently held in France, the economist Josselin Thuilliez explains what resources should be implemented to combat these epidemics.
The city of Lyon hosted last October the Sixth Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund. What is the human impact of the disease worldwide? The current situation is certainly better than it was 20 years ago, because the control strategies introduced since 2000 have considerably reduced the occurrence of the disease. Indeed, it is estimated that the number of cases and deaths was halved between 2000 and 2015. Sadly, little progress has been achieved in more recent years; worse, some countries are in fact witnessing a resurgence of the illness. The return to the forefront of this historical curse is extremely worrying. How can you explain this upturn in malaria rates? Indeed, in low-income countries, access to treatment and preventive measures is principally a question of money. If we are to continue to drive down the incidence of malaria, as was the case between 2000 and 2015, and have a chance to achieve the goal of the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria – i.e. to lower mortality rates between now and 2030 by at least 40% over 2015 levels – it would be necessary to increase both national and international investment. That is precisely what happened during the 2000s. Numerous governments and public or private organisations made the fight against malaria a priority at that time, and decided to invest massively in these efforts. It was during that period that the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, one of the main players in this area, was created. In a recent article that you co-authored with the American Nobel laureate Eric Maskin, the Chief Economist of the African Development Bank Célestin Monga and Jean-Claude Berthelemy, Professor emeritus at the Université Paris 1, you nevertheless explained that health aid alone was not sufficient. Could you tell us more about this? This well-known profile in economics is revelatory of a process governing the dissemination of an innovation: launching new products on the market results in marked industrial growth that subsequently slows as demand decreases. Good examples include the introduction of motor vehicles, incandescent light bulbs or information technologies. When applied to malaria – and this is the first time such an interpretation has been made – it means that innovation played a key role in controlling the disease during these fifteen years. In other words, it would have been difficult to fight malaria without it, no matter the amount of international support. Which innovations are you referring to? That is not to say that aid was not useful; quite the contrary. Indeed, financial support enabled the broader and longer term dissemination of these innovations; for example by funding the free distribution of mosquito nets. Without this aid, the decline of malaria would have been much less marked and even shorter in duration. In other words, to achieve the effective control of the condition, the key is to combine innovation with significant investment. An important lesson for the future... In terms of innovation, the curve clearly shows that we have reached the end of a cycle. This can partly be explained by resistance phenomena: mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides and parasites to treatments. To continue to control malaria, it will therefore be necessary to innovate once again. What will such innovation involve in the future? Beyond the human aspect, malaria also constitutes a significant burden on the economies of affected countries… By lowering infant mortality rates, these campaigns also reduce fertility levels, exerting less pressure on the economy of the country. Disease control also raises educational standards and increases adult labour supply. Indeed, malaria is one of the main causes of absenteeism from schools and affects educational outcomes. More generally, the disease affects the cognition and attentiveness of the children who will be the lifeblood of the future. All these mechanisms impact economic growth and drive countries with the most severely affected populations into a spiral of poverty. So this is yet another reason – if one were needed – to make the fight against malaria a priority. My last point is that there can be no effective control without effective implementation. Collaboration between countries and international bodies, the organisation of healthcare systems, surveillance and the collection of appropriate data all need to be improved. Recent examples – such as Sri Lanka which was declared malaria-free in 2016 – have shown that such challenges can be met by providing the necessary funds, relying on innovation and adopting the correct strategy. Of course, the case of Africa, which is more severely affected by the disease, is quite different, but these advances nonetheless bode well for the future. Footnotes
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来源平台 | Centre national de la recherche scientifique |
文献类型 | 新闻 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/216137 |
专题 | 地球科学 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | admin. Innovation and Investment Are a Pressing Need to Fight Malaria. 2019. |
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