War on Parasites
Nicholas Kristof has more on Jimmy Carter’s efforts to combat parasitic infections in Africa, including campaigns against river blindness (caused by a different worm from the one responsible for Guinea Disease), elephantitis and malaria, intestinal worms, etc. Then comes the policy point:
Mr. Carter’s private campaign against the diseases of poverty, put together with pennies and duct tape, is a model of what our government could do. Imagine if the U.S. resolved that it would wipe out malaria and elephantiasis (both are spread by mosquitoes, so a combined campaign makes sense). What if we celebrated science not by trying to go to Mars but by extinguishing malaria? What if we tried to burnish America’s image abroad not only with press releases and propaganda broadcasts, but also with a bold campaign against disease?
So I wish that President Bush could visit villages like this and see what Mr. Carter has accomplished as a private individual. Mr. Bush, to his great credit, has financed a major campaign against AIDS that will save nine million lives, and he is also increasing spending against malaria — but not nearly as energetically as he is increasing the number of troops in Iraq. So I asked Mr. Carter whether President Bush should be pushing not for a possible war with Iran, but for a war on malaria.
I would hardly bother to criticize Bush on this point. Compared to other aspects of his administration, Bush’s “let’s try to cure diseases in Africa” policy has been pretty good (as Kristof said, involving some meaningful increases in some areas). Obviously, he should do more, but we’re talking about a really, really bad president so I don’t expect anything better from him. But for the next administration and peoples’ edification, these points are well worth considering. The marginal value of additional resources spent on these sorts of problems is pretty giant at this point, and it’s a lot clearer in a technical sense how you would go about helping people through public health measures than how you would go about building democracy or spurring economic development.
32 Responses to “War on Parasites”
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February 20th, 2007 at 8:54 am
This post is bland – insufficiently insufferable.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Whatever happened to Clinton’s initiative to develop a vaccine for Malaria? Was it never passed into law?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:11 am
the world has focused more on these issues of late. and to great benefit. many more people are on hiv, tb, new generation malaria medicines, etc.
the next step in these battles should be the development of ‘field-ready’ technologies and simpler medicine regiments. for example, bed-side testing of HIV viral load, improved Tb diagnosis (the methods used today – even here in the US – rely on technology Koch invented in the early 20th century), combination pills for multiple diseases, etc.
and MY is completely correct – the ‘marginal value of additional resources spent’ on these technologies is far greater than the return on say, an extra $10 million spent on resucitation of 21+ week gestation babies:
http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=11027
finally – back here stateside – this is also a fundamental problem of the US health care system. millions/billions of dollars are spent on the extremes of health care (neonatology and medical ICUs/end-of-life care), neglecting public health measres for a vast cohort of only mildly sick people (early HTN, pre-diabetes, obesity, etc.).
February 20th, 2007 at 9:30 am
So now we know that…Jimmy Carter is a good guy and does effective humanitarian work?
This post wouldn’t have anything to do with those recent allegations of anti-Semitism…would it?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Mr Noah – if you are right, that would raise the post’s insufferability…
February 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am
What if we celebrated science not by trying to go to Mars but by extinguishing malaria?
Can we do it with giant, phallic-looking rockets?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:54 am
I’m going on hearsay here, but isn’t most of Bush’s African anti-AIDS money going to abstinence-only campaigns that amount to make-work for assorted religious wingnut organizations? If so, I’m kinda skeptical that such an approach will save 9M lives.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:56 am
What if we celebrated science not by trying to go to Mars but by extinguishing malaria?
Were we celebrating science? I thought we were doing stuff?
Anyways, since it’s so goddamn cheap, why not do BOTH? Jesus fuckin’ Christ.
m, I’m really glad Kristof is behind a subscription wall
February 20th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Please do not encourage bush to do any more for Africa. bush has approved the use of DDT in Africa.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:18 am
What if instead of launching huge PR campaigns about using ethically questionable means of research for “cures” of diseases that effect TV stars, we put out enerfy into wiping out malaria?
That wouldn’t make pro-lifers look bad, though, so maybe not.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Please do not encourage bush to do any more for Africa. bush has approved the use of DDT in Africa.
You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:50 am
there are essentially two pools of funds african and asian countries can tap to fight HIV/AIDS. A) PEPFAR is the Bush plan and b) the Global Fund against AIDS/Tb/Malaria.
Of the two, PEPFAR is far easier to access for each country’s ministry of health and the NGOs that work in these countries. (the GFATM has only one cycle of funding each year for all the NGOs and the MoH in each country.) PEPFAR also encourages but doesn’t limit to abstinence.
In general, HIV/AIDS NGOs prefer to deal with PEPFAR, as far as I have experienced. In the beginning, PEPFAR also mandated patented US drugs, but have dropped that restriction.
Now, in sticking with the Yglesias Award theme, we really should applaud some of the things Bush has done (including repealing the Clinton ban on even VISITING VISAS for HIV positive people). It doesn’t have to be an adversarial argument – Bush has done good things – no qualifications. There are now additional steps to take.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Then again, back before TimesSelect killed of Kristof’s blog, he mentioned how when he was in Kenya AIDS workers there said they preferred Clinton’s aid. The reason was that Bush has required that they use the aid to buy drugs from American pharm companies, which are more expensive, which means at times they end up with actually fewer drugs overall.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
“The marginal value of additional resources spent on these sorts of problems is pretty giant at this point, and it’s a lot clearer in a technical sense how you would go about helping people through public health measures than how you would go about building democracy or spurring economic development, or trying to fix global warming.”
February 20th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Reality Man:
That’s the dirty secret of foreign aid. Virtually all of it comes back to the “donating” country through earmarks and spending restrictions. It’s little more than corporate welfare–actually helping people in the third world is very much secondary to giving money to well connected domestic business.
February 20th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
elephantitis
Elephantiasis- Chronic, often extreme enlargement and hardening of cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue, especially of the legs and external genitals, resulting from lymphatic obstruction and usually caused by infestation of the lymph glands and vessels with a filarial worm.
February 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
No more DDT wars, please.
February 20th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
RE Carter
Mr. Carter should stick to good works and stop interfering in Middle East affairs where he doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
“we really should applaud some of the things Bush has done”
Searching for the Bush administration equivalent of the autobahn and the Volkswagen . . .
February 21st, 2007 at 4:47 am
Bush could have achieved a lot on this front by signing up to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, which aims to frontload up to $10bn of aid pledges to provide vaccines in the developing world. The WHO estimates that it will save 5m children’s lives and another 5m in later life. US participation could have extended its reach even further.
February 21st, 2007 at 6:32 am
RE: SLC “Mr. Carter should stick to good works and stop interfering in Middle East affairs where he doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground.”
I think you’re staring at your reflection in a mirror. Ever heard of the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel? It’s been 29 years now since President Carter brokered that historic treaty, and they’re still holding.
February 21st, 2007 at 6:50 am
“… we really should applaud some of the things Bush has done.”
Well, I can think of two:
He’s the father two wonderfully spirited twin girls who apparently really enjoy a good party, just like most people their age. So please, let’s leave them alone — any direct personal consequences for the sins of the father should never be visited upon his offspring.
And when his police motorcycle escort on Hickam AFB in Honolulu was involved in a crash where one officer was killed (and no, it wasn’t Bush’s fault — it had rained pretty hard that morning and one of the officers skidded on an oil slick in the road, causing a pile-up), the president immediately stopped the motorcade and dispatched his accompanying personal physician to render aid to the stricken officers.
Do those count?
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