Dr. Grant spoke to us about how poverty plays a big role in deciding which disease to cure first. He explained that one of the big issues about choosing which disease to cure is that diseases that occur in countries that are really poor tend to be ignored. This tends to happen with malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhoea. We were assured that the people do not die from the actual diarrhoea but that diarrhoea is more a symptom of the bacteria causing the disease.
He explained that all of these diseases fit together under the category of "poverty". This is because nearly all of these diseases can be prevented by people being able to access clean water, proper nutrition and a good sanitation system because the problem is that the sewer system leaks into the water resources contaminating the drinking water.
Dr. Grant has a very strong opinion about how we should prioritise diseases. He believes that we should take into consideration these key factors:
1) How much poverty there is?
a) Is this a country that doesn't have the capacity to solve the problem by itself?
b) Is it a wealthy country with the money and expertise to solve the problem by itself?
2) Estimate of what the disease really costs
a) How many people are killed by the disease?
b) What does it cost in terms of human suffering? (disability, constant pain, burden on families)
c) What does it cost in terms of economics? (if you get sick how can this effect the families in terms of money)
Dr. Grant then explained how these researchers prioritise the diseases in a more complex way by:
1) Poverty
2) Geographic Distribution of the disease
a) Where is the disease occurring?
b) Is it occurring in countries that are mostly poor?
3) How many people die from the disease?
Dr. Grant then told us about a certain measure that is used by the World Health Organisation which measures the disease burden. This is called the DALY's or Disability Adjusted Life Years. It isn't a measure of how many people actually die from the disease but it is more a measure of the burden it brings on the families and others. They try not only to factor in how many deaths occur, but also how much suffering there is or how long people are sick so they can't work and earn money. This measure changes the rankings of disease slightly. The summary table (pictured below), shows that AIDS/HIV is the biggest burden follwed by Malaria, NTDs, Helminth Infections and finally Tuberculosis.
Disease | Disease Burden in SSA (DALY's) |
AIDS/HIV and Cancer | 64.0 million |
Malaria | 40.9 million |
NTD’s | 8.6-21.2 million |
Helminth Infections | 5.4-18.3 million |
Tuberculosis | 9.3 million |
Dr. Grant explained that the 1st world countries don't always look at the burden that the disease has on people of the 3rd world countries, but rather on the number of deaths it causes. This is how 1st world countries prioritise their diseases, and it is not the most efficient method. He also explained to us that counting the number of deaths that the disease causes isn't always the best method, and we need to take into consideration how big a burden it is to the society.
Diarrhoea as well as Tuberculosis are both 'poverty' diseases and rarely occur in 1st world countries. Dr. Grant explains that it is not always a factor of finding the right vaccines and cures for the disease, but to stop it at the beginning before it grows or even before the disease is contracted.
Written and researched by Michael Metaxotos and Arthan Ioannou
