It is distressing that millions of people die of infectious diseases every year in several poor countries where cost of medical treatment is very high and not much is being done by the world community regarding this.

This certainly reveals the role of income inequality in such preventable deaths, as a report in your newspaper pointed out. (Nov.21)

Dr Maha Barakat, Chair of RBM Partnership to End Malaria, the largest global platform for coordinated action towards a world free from malaria, has raised a pertinent point by stating that in several countries, out of pocket expense of medical treatment is very high and it means people have to pay a portion of their medical treatment costs.

In some countries, it is up to 59 per cent whereas less than 20 per cent is the reasonable proportion.

She has stated that in most of the Malaria infected countries (90 per cent of them in Africa), the out of pocket medical expense could go up to 59 per cent, which means, of $100 medical bill, patients pay up to $59 from their pocket, as the treatment is not fully state-funded.

Most of the 400,000 people who died of Malaria in 2017 across the globe were children and women, as per the World Malaria Report 2018.

Sadly, every two minutes a child is dying of Malaria. This is surely an unacceptable mortality rate. This happens because Malaria treatment is very expensive in those countries.

Implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is the solution to this problem, as Dr Barakat says. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is the most important Goal.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the UHC enables everyone to access the services that address the most significant causes of disease and death, and ensures that the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.

Incidentally, at the United Nations General Assembly in September, all 193 UN member states made a pledge to implement the UHC by 2030.

WHO statistics reveals that three infectious diseases were ranked in the top ten causes of death worldwide in 2016, with 5.7 million deaths, such as lower respiratory infections (3 million deaths), diarrheal diseases (1.4 million deaths), and tuberculosis (1.3 million deaths).

The international community should wake up to reality and act.

Saroj Nair
By email