by Martin Enserink
Mention global health, and everybody thinks of HIV, malaria, and a host of other infectious diseases rampant in developing countries. But a group of research institutes says it's time that chronic, non-infectious diseases that afflict people in poor countries get a more prominent place on the global scientific agenda—and yesterday they announced three new priorities for their own research. The targets are hypertension, tobacco use, and the crude stoves polluting indoor air in developing countries.
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, founded in June, unites public research institutes in nine countries, including powerhouses like the U.K.' s Medical Research Council and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The group picked the three health problems—which they say cause 11 million premature deaths annually—at a meeting in New Delhi earlier this month.
It has long been known that noninfectious diseases are on the rise in developing countries for a number of complex reasons, including urbanization, increasing wealth, pollution, and changing nutrition patterns. Recently, some researchers even proposed making cancer a priority in global health.
The research needed to tackle the three new targets is diverse.
For hypertension, effective and inexpensive drugs exist but they reach few people in low- and middle-income countries, so research will need to focus on new ways to deliver them, says Alliance chair Abdallah Daar, a public health expert at the University of Toronto in Canada. The problem of open fires and primitive stoves for cooking—which WHO estimates cause 1.5 million deaths annually—requires more engineering studies to come up with clean, cheap alternatives. Research on how to curtail tobacco use is often highly country-specific: What works in the United States for instance, may not work in India, where many smoke bidi, hand-rolled, high-nicotine cigarettes that are unregulated.
Money for the studies will come from the institutes' own budgets and could amount to tens of millions of dollars over the next 5 years, Daar says.
One obstacle in this fight is that chronic disorders in developing countries don't command the media attention that infectious diseases do, says NHLBI Deputy Director Susan Shurin. "By their very nature, they are not as dramatic," she says, "and they're very complex. It's a less attractive problem." Inadvertently, yesterday's press conference provided proof of that: ScienceInsider was the only outlet to call in.
—Martin Enserink
I believe they need money for the research but isn't there yet enough data they had in years of doing researches? I hope this time they come up with something new.
Dear Scientists .
Al the WORK is DONE ! Antracene , Naftalene and other more
cancerogenics are WELL STUDIED in ROSTOCK GERMANY COCKES FACTORIES . Every singel PAC is tested in piccograns x time days and % CANCERS / 50 MAUS famillies !
This was a MONKS JOB !
I passed a lifetime in a PLUTONIUM PLANT ,
were O,7 miccrogram is DEADLY !Needless to say ,I am penetrated by the TOP DANGER.... but I got usofagus cancer from stupid ,CO2 DRINKING WATER .
Give your FUNDS to the poor for buying STOOF PIPES ! ---------------------------------------------------------
Otherwise your BELLY becomes FAT and CANCEROGENIC in the liver...
Regards
F.P.