Obama plans to increase support for global health; neglected disease funding would more than double

4 Feb 2010

Paul Chinnock

Source: TropIKA.net

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President Barak Obama’s budget proposals placed before the US Congress include, as part of an overall increase for expenditure on global health, a remarkable rise in funding for the war against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). From $65 million in 2010, the budget proposal for 2011 would increase expenditure on these diseases to $155 million.

The President’s budget request for global health amounts to $9.6 billion, which would be spent by programmes within the State Department, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Health & Human Services, and the Defense Department. It represents a 9% increase on the $8.8 billion which will be spent during 2010.

WHO estimates that more than one billion people, or one-sixth of the world’s population, suffer from one or more NTDs, and President Obama stated in July last year that he intended to increase NTD funding, as part of a broadening of the focus of global health efforts – see TropIKA.net News. His administration is said to be establishing specific timetables for the elimination or partially elimination of three NTDs – leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, and onchocersiasis. Other diseases so far targeted in the US NTDs programme are schistosomiasis, trachoma, and soil-transmitted helminthiases.

Dr Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and a leading figure in NTD research, said in a Reuters interview that it was no accident that most of the funding would be made available via the State Department: “[NTDs] disproportionately affect countries of global security interest to the United States – countries from the Islamic conference, nuclear weapons countries. This also has important implications for foreign policy and the State Department”. He went on to describe the low costs required to successfully treat NTDs and the economic benefits.

Malaria funding would also be increased under the proposed budget to $680 million, up from $585 million in 2010. Mother and child health programmes would also receive major increases.

Nevertheless, the bulk of the requested funding for global health, about $7 billion, is still for the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This does not represent a significant increase in AIDS funding, which has led to disappointment in some quarters – see article in Wall Street Journal).