The Economic Sense of Combating Schistosomiasis

As most of you know, I maintain another blog on my Fulbright research (prevention and control of schistosomiasis), which can be accessed using the navigation bar at the top of this page. Below is the most recent entry I posted on that site, and I thought it would be worthwhile to post it here as well. I welcome questions and comments.

“For governments, corporations, NGOs and individuals, there is little else during this global economic crisis that provides such a significant return on investment while also reducing suffering and saving lives.” This claim, made by Melinda Gates, was published on January 30th in an update on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (GNNTD) website. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to grant $34 million to GNNTD, a world famous alliance of international organizations working to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2020.

NTDs are a group of 13 parasitic and bacterial infections that most commonly create misery for the world’s poorest people. Together, they create a global disease burden higher than that of HIV/AIDS. More from this website: “Spread by mechanisms as simple as a bite of an infected fly or contact with contaminated water, [NTDs] blind, disable, disfigure and stigmatize their victims, trapping them in an unending cycle of poverty. Research has shown that eliminating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.” The 13 NTDs include schistosomiasis.

Promoting these so-called “penny cures,” as both the GNNTD and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are doing, is a great way to remind the more business-oriented among us how much more financially productive people are when their guts aren’t swollen with worms. In this light, we recognize that schistosomiasis is not only debilitating, but results in huge amounts of lost productivity and dollars.

Another market incentive for business activity that improves the lives of the poor came with the signing of a law by President Bush in 2008. It’s called the Priority Review Voucher and it basically says that whenever a company obtains approval for a new treatment of any neglected tropical disease, it gets priority review from the FDA for any other product it has already made. This allows businesses to get their more profitable drugs to market earlier, potentially earning them millions of more dollars.

Save the world and make a fortune = A pretty good deal! Count me in...