Tropical diseases and the 10/90 gap

Abstract

Globally tropical infectious diseases are the biggest killers of children and young adults in less-developed countries accounting for more than 13 million deaths per year. Although most premature deaths can be prevented with interventions that have been available for years essential medicines to combat tropical diseases are relatively small when compared with overall needs. Only a small percent of the total worldwide expenditure on health research and development is devoted to the development of medicines targeted at tropical diseases. In addition poor countries which have the predominant distribution of infectious diseases allocate only about 4% of their gross national product per head on health--half of the amount spent by wealthier countries. However over the years investing in health is increasingly recognized as a requirement for development. Reduction goals have been set for AIDS malaria and tuberculosis in response to initiatives launched by the WHO the World Bank and the Joint UN Programme for HIV/AIDS. Moreover private foundations such as those of Gates and Rockefeller have decided to support new global initiatives for research and development. Nevertheless an urgent requirement is a radical change at the global level in the allocation of funds towards research and development into drugs and vaccines for tropical diseases.