Budget cuts undermine global health innovations protecting against threats like Ebola

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/bc-rbc031915.php

Public Release: 26-Mar-2015
Burness Communications

As the world looks to American innovation to fight Ebola, malaria, tuberculosis, and a host of other health threats, a new report released today on Capitol Hill warns budget battles in Washington are eroding preparedness at home and abroad at a time when scientific advances are poised to deliver new lifesaving drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics.

"Since 2009, we've seen declining, or at best stagnating, support for global health research and development, with politics trumping prudent investments that could protect the US and the world from an array of threats," said Erin Will Morton, director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), an influential alliance of 25 nonprofit organizations seeking new tools to address existing challenges, including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; emerging problems, such as drug-resistant superbugs and dengue; and neglected diseases, like sleeping sickness and river blindness.

The prospect of additional cuts is alarming disease experts, who warn that the next global health crisis could already be brewing in places like war-ravaged Syria and ISIS-occupied Iraq, where there has been an alarming rise in polio, measles, leishmaniasis, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, and meningitis. Meanwhile, Chagas, dengue, and chikungunya are gaining a foothold in the US. And the degraded health systems that abetted the spread of Ebola are not peculiar to West Africa: a recent report from Save the Children warns 28 countries are "highly vulnerable" to a deadly disease outbreak.

Morton noted that while the Ebola crisis exposed the dangers of ignoring neglected diseases, one bright spot was the ability of US agencies to collaborate and quickly roll out desperately needed diagnostic tests and launch clinical trials for new drugs and vaccines. "But these innovations are the product of past investments that provided consistent, long-term support to researchers who steadily generated incremental advances," she said. "So by failing to provide sufficient support today, we are systematically degrading our ability to respond to the next global health crisis."

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