Swine Flu - What about the poor?

The first question I asked when Swine Flu came on to the agenda was: I wonder what support the developing world is going to get? This was my status on Facebook for a short while but no one had any answers. Not that I expected them.

I mean if its killing people; unhealthy and healthy people, then who are going to be in the most vulnerable position one wonders? Well those without access to medication obviously aren't in a good place, what about people who are malnourished, who are born with diseases such as tuberculosis or HIV and suffer from malaria and pneumonia? And those in densely populated areas, especially slums, where disease could spread quickly? Yup. Not looking great for those in developing countries right now. Especially those in the Southern Hemisphere.

According to the latest totals by the WHO; over 4oo people have died of swine flu and over 100,000 have been infected. Experts fear this figure is higher, the U.S believe many flu victims have gone unaccounted for due to mild symptoms.

Poor motherland (UK) has been flu ridden big time. To be honest, London is a hive for viruses, I was sick constantly when I lived there and seriously couldn't understand why there weren't dry soup dispensers at every tube station.

(Status 1 July) Image source: http://blogs.nature.com
For a better interactive map of the spread go to BBC website

Anyway it was announced earlier this week that The United Nations will need more than $1 billion this year to help poor countries fight the global swine flu epidemic, according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (earlier on Monday).

"The funding has not been flowing as we have been expecting," Ban told reporters. "We are now mobilizing all resources possible."

Apparently countries within the developing world have enough vaccine to cover the whole population, yet WHO have a small stockpile of Tamiflu donated by Roche (the company who create the anti-vaccine) for developing countries.

Is it me? Or does it seem once again these poor countries are desperate for our help, and although our governments are happy to take their oil, for them to make our clothes, consume their natural resources; they're less willing to donate a medicine that if not received the consequences are fatal? I guess the irony being that the disease is being spread by the movement of people in developed countries. As Indian health secretary Naresh Dayal explained last month "We have so far 30 cases which have been laboratory confirmed. Out of these, 28 are those who came from infected countries in the West. I would like to say that the developed countries would do a great service to the developing countries if they could contain and check the spread of infection in their own countries. I would, therefore, urge them to take action to stop the spread of the infection."
In May, the U.N. asked vaccine producers to reserve a portion of their pandemic vaccine production for poor countries. Some companies have agreed to help. GlaxoSmithKline PLC offered to donate 50 million doses of pandemic vaccine to WHO for distribution to developing countries.

"We hope to mobilize some funds to procure commodities, including antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines to countries," WHO chief Margaret Chan said at a donor's conference in Geneva earlier this week.

"Many developing countries actually go into this pandemic what I call empty- handed," Chan said "They don't have antivirals. They don't have vaccines. They don't have antibiotics."

As much as I like to have faith in the W.H.O, when I went to see Dr Beat Richner (right) who is the founder of KANTHA BOPHA Children's Hospital in Cambodia (an absolute legend for the record) he explained that W.H.O apply the levels of standards in the context of the country: “The belief that poor medicine is good enough for poor people in poor countries is still alive and kicking, “ says Dr Richner.

Lets hope this isn't the case this time round.

By the way, I promise to lighten up soon. Two consecutive non-entertaining posts is always a worry. I think its because I have a bad cold - lets hope its not the flu.

Please forgive (and wash your hands after reading this)