Genetic research may bring major benefits to developing countries
Genetic research could lead to major medical advances against killer diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, that are pandemic in the developing world, potentially saving millions of lives, says a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the impact of genomics. The report strongly endorses the recommendation of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health to create a Global Health Research Fund, a new central organisation for research and development with an initial US$1.5bn (€1.6bn) in funding, which would be available through peer-reviewed application to every country. It argues that a second $1.5bn should be made available to institutions that are working on new vaccine and drug development for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The WHO Report, entitled Genomics and World Health, was compiled by a team of 14 internationally prominent doctors, medical researchers and ethicists in both developed and developing countries. It also looks at the ethics of genome research, covering a wide array of themes, from using DNA tests to select the sex of children to the need to ensure that poor countries are not left out of the coming medical advances.
It details the latest advances in genome research, explains how this research could result in advances against many diseases, warns about potential risks of such research and makes recommendations on how the fruits of this research can be brought to the developing world. 'This is the first ever Report to put genomic research in a global perspective,' said Sir David Weatherall, professor at Oxford University's Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and lead writer of the report. 'It anticipates how the global community could use genetics to attack the unfinished agenda of infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS that are still killing so many in the developing world, and eventually the diseases that are crippling the healthcare systems of all countries, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.'
According to another of the report's writers, Professor Dan Brock of Brown University, developing nations are in danger of being left out of the benefits of genomic research, as they were left behind in the computer revolution of the 1980s and 90s. 'Genomics and related technologies should be used to narrow the existing unethical inequities in global health,' he said.
Among the projects mentioned in the report is one to create a new 'designer' mosquito that cannot carry the malaria parasite, and rapid identification of a class of anti-malarial drugs that have the potential to be effective against multi-drug-resistant parasites, as well as being inexpensive and stable. Scientists are using DNA technology to produce vaccines that can be incorporated into vegetables and fruits, against hepatitis B, cholera, measles and human papilloma virus, allowing them to be ingested as part of a meal.