Diseases could be cured for 25p

The world has got its priorities wrong when it comes to the money we spend on combating disease.

We should be spending money on the treatment of neglected tropical diseases which can be cured easily and cheaply according to Alan Fenwick, Professor of Tropical Parasitology at Imperial College, London.

Tens of billions of dollars are committed to fighting HIV whereas tens of millions are committed to 'neglected tropical diseases' such as ....

He would like to see five percent of the Global Fund spent on these tropical diseases, which are caused by parasites.

He told the BBC: "At the moment we have an emergency situation where five hundred million rural Africans are infected with at least one and up to five of these neglected tropical diseases which we can treat with the pharmaceutical drugs which are on offer.

"And the cost of delivery is 25p per person, per year".

In an interview for HARDtalk, as part of BBC World News TV's 'Survival' series, Professor Fenwick told Stephen Sackur that the so-called 'neglected tropical diseases' caused by parasites affected many more people than did the HIV infection.

HIV affects probably 30 million people in Africa. Shista Somiasis affects some 200 million people there.

"The difference is that HIV, malaria and TB are acute killers whereas the diseases that I'm talking about are chronic, they're acquired during school age years, but they don't kill people until they're maybe 30 or 40 years old".

Tens of billions of dollars are committed to fighting HIV whereas tens of millions are committed to Bilharzia.

Stephen Sackur asked him why there was this disparity in funding

CLIP 1

"I don't think it's right" he told HARDtalk. "The reason that these diseases are neglected is because the people who are infected don't have a vote. They're the poorest of the poor".

"The way I argue is that when a child has reached the age of five in Africa, he or she has survived any inherited HIV.

"They've survived malaria, which they would have got as an infant, and survived the various other early diseases.

"From that age, through their school age years they actually should be growing and at their most healthy.

"The problem is parasites and the worm parasites are debilitating. They cause stunted growth. They mean that children can't get up and go energetically to school and yet we can get rid of those parasites just so easily.

Professor Fenwick explained that just one dose of drugs once a year was enough to kill the parasites that caused the diseases.

Nor did the treatment need to be administered by doctors. It just required someone who could read and write and would be prepared to do a few days' training, to treat their entire village.

But what about the underlying problems of dirty water and poor sanitation? Stephen Sackur put it to Professor Fenwick that it would take more than one does of medicine a year to tackle those problems.

But that is not an argument for doing nothing, according to Professor Fenwick.

CLIP 2

HARDtalk is broadcast on BBC World News TV channel at 0330, 0830, 1430, 2030 and 2230 GMT. The interview with Professor Alan Fenwick will be broadcast on Thursday 23 October 2008.