HEALTH:
Why Go On About AIDS
Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Jul 16 (IPS) - The attention to AIDS is diverting attention away
from other killer diseases, a leading health expert warns.
Derek Yach, representative of the secretary general of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) told IPS that half of all deaths occur due to
diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
But only a tiny part of health aid budgets is going into fighting these
diseases, he said. The WHO itself spends no more than five to six percent
of its budget on these diseases. With the stress on fighting AIDS,
malaria and tuberculosis, conditions like diarrhoea and respiratory
infections rarely get noticed, he said.
Yach was among a group of experts who gathered in London for the launch
of an edition of the 'Development' journal devoted to "the politics of
health."
"The issue of access to treatment for AIDS, malaria and TB is in the
forefront, but diabetes, hypertension and cancer can be as much a death
sentence as AIDS," Yach said. "Someone suffering from diabetes who does
not get insulin will die."
These are also seen as diseases of affluence that do not particularly
affect developing countries. "We need to put data on the table here,"
Yach said. "A quarter of the health budget in some Western Pacific
countries is spent on fighting diabetes," Yach said. And treating
complications from diabetes such as kidney failure leading to a need for
dialysis can be expensive.
China has about 2.5 million deaths a year arising from cardiovascular
conditions, Yach said. "Of these about a million are due to the impacts
of tobacco," he said. India has about as many cardiovascular deaths, with
about 700,000 of them tobacco-related.
In both countries "the level of diabetes is high and rising in urban
areas, and it is beginning to occur at a much younger age, affecting
people in their twenties and thirties," Yach said.
In China obesity levels have risen three times. Tobacco, diet and
physical inactivity can all be a factor in heart and respiratory
conditions, and in cancer and diabetes, Yach said
A part of the problem is "a perception issue, because these diseases are
seen as being a problem of individual frailty," Yach said. "These are
seen as areas for individual responsibility and not government policy."
But diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular conditions are being
neglected also because of the "enormous commercial vested interests in
the food and tobacco industries," Yach said. Those interests are in turn
backed by political interests in these industries, he said.
Poor dietary habits have made many of these conditions worse, Yach
said. "There has been an explosion of marketing foods to young children.
That is not a favourable environment to help treat chronic diseases."
Non-governmental organisations will be crucial in taking forward a
campaign on health-related issues like fighting the food and tobacco
industries. An alliance of about 200 NGOs fighting the tobacco industry
have linked up via the Internet to get their message through to
government, Yach said. Without that the campaign would not be possible,
he said.
"We have not seen that kind of alliance over diet, nutrition and physical
activity yet," he said.
Yach was among several experts who contributed to the debate on the
politics of health in the 'Development'. Several of the experts argue
that the millennium development goals relating to health will not be met
primarily because of the politics of health.
At present rates some estimates are that the MDGs will be met only in
2165, Kelley Lee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
argued. By any standards "to be 150 years late is pretty scandalous," she
said.
Present trends indicate also that there will be about a billion deaths
due to tobacco in this century, Lee said. "That is a challenge for
priority setting," she said. Political decisions must be taken now in
ways that are "transparent and lead to effective decisions."
Wendy Harcourt from the Society for International Development, and editor
of the journal said the expert views included in the journal demonstrate
the need to see "health systems issues as a political issue."
(END/2004)
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