On Monday this week, over one billion people on earth had a reason to smile – but most of them did not know. These are the people whose lives and dignity are being savagely battered by age-old diseases, now called tropical neglected diseases. These people are found in the poorest parts of the world half of them in sub-saharan Africa.
They suffer because there are no new effective drugs that are coming up to end their suffering. Multi-national pharmaceuticals and even the media had conspired to suppress their needs. These peasants do not meet the commercial threshold of big drug companies and the attendant politics.
That is why it was gratifying to see on Monday 11 multi-nationals converging in one accord and pledging their support towards research and development on neglected diseases. The firms offered to open up their libraries and laboratories to allow researchers access to compounds that may lead to development of new drugs for neglected poor of the world.
In Kenya, the Ministry of Public Health has identified seven disastrous neglected tropical diseases. They include: Kalaazar, Bilharzia, sleeping sickness and trachoma. These diseases are mainly found in Baringo, Mwea and Ahero, Coast and Eastern and South Rift regions respectively.
Take Bilaharzia for instance. In 2006 as a features writer, I was in Mwea Irrigation scheme. Here every single school child and youth were infected or affected. Schools recorded children with a lot of discomfort and therefore low concentration. The youth could not even pass tests to be recruited into the disciplined forces because medical tests indicated that they had bilharzia. I spend time with some youth who mourned how their dream careers was hampered by a diseases that could easily be controlled or treated if a drugs were developed.
I have also covered similar unfortunate realities in Kajiado where trachoma reigns and blinds and in Baringo and Pokot areas where Kalaazar has really wasted lives.
But the Monday meeting sheds some glimmer of hope. In the presence of Bill Gates of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organisation, the global health fraternity, it seems is coming to its senses.
In the declarations for instance, WHO vowed to eliminate ten of the 20 shortlisted neglected tropical diseases by 2020. Kenya need to eliminate the seven if the ideals of Vision 2030 are to be realized. There is no way we can hit the magic status of a mid-income nation when such primitive diseases like worms still haunt us.
Therefore the sharing of information on compounds should be a welcome move by our researchers. These compounds will afford scientists to boost innovation and promote open sharing of research knowledge.
On Monday I was at Kemri as an interested party to global health. It is at Kemri that the London declaration was webcasted live to an audience of about 100 scientists, policy makers and government representatives, doctors, and journalists, thanks to Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).
Kenya is credited for being the first African country to develop a national plan on neglected diseases. But it should not end there. It is time now that the government leverage on this international goodwill to support our own researchers in this field. Support can come through expansion of research facilities, provision of security especially in such areas prone to banditry.