Scaling up the response to infectious diseases: a way out of poverty

The report calls for a major increase in the international response to the three major killers: HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. It begins by profiling these diseases, in terms of their spread, the relationship between the diseases and the reason why the poor are particularly vulnerable to them.

The authors argue that the tools to address these diseases are available, but inequitably distributed. They set out to show that the benefits of ensuring success in this massive effort to scale up against diseases of poverty far outweigh the costs of their control.

The specific benefits to poverty of targeting these diseases are outlined:

• since these diseases affect the most vulnerable, targeting them can help the most vulnerable
• by preventing adults from working, these diseases keep families in poverty
• business costs incurred by illness can be reduced
• stop losing ground against drug resistance to low cost drugs
• reduce risk of disease spread through population mobility
• reduce childhood deaths
• prevent major spread to low prevalence areas
• increase health care generally through the provision of greater resources for these disease

The document provides an outline of existing, successful interventions and describes a route for scaling up activities to fight these diseases.