Nearly 5,000 people have died from Ebola in West Africa. There is still no Ebola vaccine 40 years after the disease first emerged because it previously affected only poor African nations, the head of the World Health Organisation has said.
Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the WHO, explained “Ebola emerged nearly four decades ago. Why are clinicians still empty-handed, with no vaccines and no cure?" She continued: “Because Ebola has historically been confined to poor African nations. The R&D incentive is virtually non-existent. A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay.”
She said that long-standing WHO complaints about the lack of investment in both vaccine development and the healthcare systems of poor states had “fallen on deaf ears for decades”. But the current global Ebola panic put the arguments “out there with consequences that all the world can see, every day, on prime time TV news”.
In recent months several prototype Ebola vaccines have been rushed through development, a process which usually takes up to 10 years. But even the most promising will not have completed testing for safety and efficacy before the end of next year. The failure of governments and the international pharmaceutical industry to develop one has led to calls for greater investment in vaccines for other rare but potentially dangerous outbreak diseases such as Marburg, Sars and Chikungunya.
See the article in the current issue of the Socialist Standard that made a similar accusation.
Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the WHO, explained “Ebola emerged nearly four decades ago. Why are clinicians still empty-handed, with no vaccines and no cure?" She continued: “Because Ebola has historically been confined to poor African nations. The R&D incentive is virtually non-existent. A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay.”
She said that long-standing WHO complaints about the lack of investment in both vaccine development and the healthcare systems of poor states had “fallen on deaf ears for decades”. But the current global Ebola panic put the arguments “out there with consequences that all the world can see, every day, on prime time TV news”.
In recent months several prototype Ebola vaccines have been rushed through development, a process which usually takes up to 10 years. But even the most promising will not have completed testing for safety and efficacy before the end of next year. The failure of governments and the international pharmaceutical industry to develop one has led to calls for greater investment in vaccines for other rare but potentially dangerous outbreak diseases such as Marburg, Sars and Chikungunya.
See the article in the current issue of the Socialist Standard that made a similar accusation.
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