Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

A medical imbalance

The folly of having a medical system largely geared to profits, rather than people, can be seen in the gross imbalances in the world's production of drugs. Pope John Paul pointed out this imbalance in a message earlier this month to an international conference (WCR, April 22).

In poor nations, the pope said, "drugs are not available for the treatment of devastating and deadly diseases." But in wealthy nations, "huge sums are spent on producing medicines that serve hedonistic purposes."

Indeed, in the West, the market for cures for toenail fungus, impotence, face wrinkles, baldness and other relatively minor concerns amounts to billions of dollars annually. But a 1999 study found that of 1,223 new drugs developed by drug companies over the previous 20 years, only 13 were designed to treat tropical diseases.

Research follows money, not needs. For while deaths from infectious diseases have increased recently in the Western world, this is largely a problem of poorer nations. It is possible to prevent the vast majority of deaths from infectious diseases, but the political and economic will to do so does not exist.

When it does, startling progress can be made. The number of child deaths from diarrhea was cut in half during the 1990s by applying simple prevention techniques and treatments. Likewise, significant progress has been made in reducing deaths due to tuberculosis in the last five years through an inexpensive treatment program.

However, the incidence of death from diseases such as AIDS, malaria and cholera has been growing. Virtually all those deaths are in poorer nations, with AIDS, in particular, threatening to kill massive numbers of people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Those who favour privatization of health care need to come to grips with realities such as these. The more profit is permitted to be a driving force in health care, the more the poor will suffer. The more the profit mentality is allowed to rule, the more those who do not comprise "a market" will be forgotten.

In his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul called for a concerted worldwide effort to promote development, an effort that involves sacrificing the positions of income and of power enjoyed by the more developed economies.

This implies seeking new and fairer ways of doing a whole host of things, including health care and pharmaceutical production. The crying needs of the many should not continue to be sacrificed for the profits of the few.

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