26 March 2007
Microbial Threats and Wealth
In the March 22, 2007 Wall Street Journal, Henry Masur pointed out the discrepancy between the resources that Congress and the pharmaceutical industry have devoted to antibiotic research and those that have been invested in responding to alleviating chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. A simple explanation is that the victims of the latter have typically been wealthier customers for drug companies than the unfortunate people in less developed countries who suffer from tuberculosis, meningitis, malaria, and other infectious diseases. This is one of the reasons that AIDS did not spark the creation of combination anti-retroviral therapies until the disease traveled from Africa to the West.
It is short-sighted, in Masur’s view, not to recognize that the scourge of poorer countries will eventually bedevil the wealthy countries of the West because bacteria will adjust to our lack of attention to their adaptability. Infectious disease probably afflicts the least affluent in our own society disproportionately. That may be why Congress is the right forum to fight this battle. The votes of the less affluent are valuable currency that equalizes their lack of purchasing power.
In the March 22, 2007 Wall Street Journal, Henry Masur pointed out the discrepancy between the resources that Congress and the pharmaceutical industry have devoted to antibiotic research and those that have been invested in responding to alleviating chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. A simple explanation is that the victims of the latter have typically been wealthier customers for drug companies than the unfortunate people in less developed countries who suffer from tuberculosis, meningitis, malaria, and other infectious diseases. This is one of the reasons that AIDS did not spark the creation of combination anti-retroviral therapies until the disease traveled from Africa to the West.
It is short-sighted, in Masur’s view, not to recognize that the scourge of poorer countries will eventually bedevil the wealthy countries of the West because bacteria will adjust to our lack of attention to their adaptability. Infectious disease probably afflicts the least affluent in our own society disproportionately. That may be why Congress is the right forum to fight this battle. The votes of the less affluent are valuable currency that equalizes their lack of purchasing power.
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