Og der er masser af penge bag
UK foreign aid to eradicate diseases which kill and disfigure (vansirer) millions is to rise fivefold.
A total of 245 million pounds (godt to milliarder DKR) will be spent fighting diseases such as river blindness and bilharzia (sneglefeber), reports BBC online Saturday.
Such donations, coupled with free drugs from pharmaceutical companies, could help wipe out some illnesses, they predict.
A UK expert said the aim was to offer a billion treatments worldwide a year against 800 million now.
So-called “neglected tropical diseases” receive a tiny fraction of the funding set aside for the fight against major killers such as HIV, TB and malaria.
However, campaigners say that even a relatively small investment could transform the lives of millions of people in poorer tropical countries.
The Department for International Development (det britiske Danida), announcing the aid package, said that over the next few years, the money would protect an estimated 140 million people from these parasitic infections.
Among the prime targets are elephantiasis, a mosquito-borne parasite which leads to abnormal enlargement of the limbs and genitals, and bilharzia, spread through contaminated water, which impairs child growth, damages internal organs and can lead to death or chronic ill-health.
River blindness, the third key disease, is spread by parasitic worms and cause severe discomfort and sight loss.
Finally, Guinea worm, another water-borne infection, can leave people bedridden for months before the parasitic worm, which can grow up to 90 cm long, emerges.
International Development Minister Stephen O’Brien said: – British support will take the ‘neglected’ out of ‘neglected tropical diseases’ and will not just save lives but transform lives.
Professor David Molyneux, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said, that “as far as the British taxpayer is concerned, this money will offer more health to more people than anything else”.
