Places that harbour a lot of parasites and pathogens not only suffer the debilitating effects of disease on their workforces, but also have their human capital eroded, child by child, from birth. Economist
A starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture won Kevin Carter the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
This research featured in this weeks economist and emanating from Christopher Eppig at the University of New Mexico reveals the findings that infectious diseases cause reduced human intelligence and the obvious corollary that the control of these diseases is crucial to a country’s development. We knew vaccination, clean water and proper sewerage transformed public health, what we hadn’t appreciated is their impact on cognition and intellect. This may be seen as another reason to increase health interventions in the developing world. It is. But did we really need another reason to confront the daily indictment of 28,000 child deaths? (I don’t want to ignore the progress that has been made since 1990 when the figure was 40,000, but infant mortality and life expectancy in the third world are still tragically high).
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
About Julia Manning
Julia studied visual science at City University and became a member of the College of Optometrists in 1991. Her career has included being visiting lecturer in clinical practice at City University, visiting clinician at the Royal
Free Hospital, being a founder member of the British Association of Behavioural Optometrists and working with Primary Care Trusts in south east London. She was a Director of the UK Institute of Optometry for 6 years, took post-graduate studies in diabetes and founded Julia Manning Eyecare, a specialist optometry practice for people with mental and physical disabilities which was bought by HealthcallOptical Ltd in August 2009.
Julia is a founder and Chief Executive of 2020health.org which she launched at the end of 2006 as the first web based, clinician-led, independent Think Tank for Health and Technology. It uniquely focuses on bottom-up policy development by front line professionals focusing on the themes of technology and management. Publications include Not Immune: vaccination policy in the 21st century; Practice-based commissioning: not what it says on the tin; Responsibility in healthcare: changing the culture; NHS IT: A plan of action for a new government; Implementing value-based pricing in the UK; Cutting the costs without cutting the services and Health, disease and unemployment: The Bermuda Triangle of Society. She has blogged on many health and technology issues and wrote on the history of her profession in ‘60 years of the NHS’ (St. James’s House, 2008).
Pingback: Tweets that mention Do we need another reason to combat disease in the developing world? | 2020health's Blog -- Topsy.com