Press Release New paper on global diseases
Focusing on getting cheap health interventions to the Third World holds economic benefits of more than $30 billion, according to new research for the Copenhagen Consensus Center …
Copenhagen, Denmark (May 19, 2008) – Today’s tools for improving health are so powerful and inexpensive that health conditions could be reasonably good even in poor countries, if policymakers would spend relatively little in the right places. The Copenhagen Consensus Center research identifies seven approaches where the benefits would outweigh the financial costs. The most promising investment is in tuberculosis treatment. Spending $1b on tuberculosis treatment in a year would save 1 million lives. Because good health accompanies higher levels of national economic welfare in the long run, there are economic benefits worth $30b. The second best recommendation is to tackle cardiovascular disease in low and middle income countries where heart disease represents more than a quarter of the death toll. Spending $200 million on cheap drugs to treat heart attacks could avert 300,000 deaths with benefits 25 times higher than the costs. The third lucrative option is to spend one billion dollars expanding the provision of insecticide-treated bed-nets and expand the provision of malaria treatment. This would save more than 500,000 lives, with economic benefits of $20 billion. In addition, the research identifies expanding immunization and micronutrient coverage for children; reducing the number of tobacco-related deaths with a tobacco tax; arresting the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through ‘combination prevention’; and strengthening surgical capacity, particularly at the district hospital level, as highly cost-efficient solutions to global diseases. “The exciting thing about this research is that it provides policy-makers and philanthropists with a menu of options – with costs and benefits attached – where a lot of good can be done, not just in the health problems we hear the most about, but also in areas like heart disease in developing nations,” Copenhagen Consensus director Bjorn Lomborg said. In the last week of May, the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Expert Panel of stellar economists, including five Nobel Prize laureates, will compile a ranked list of the suggested solutions to disease, along with other global challenges such as malnutrition, climate change and terrorism. Listing 45 specific projects that could help combat 10 of the world’s biggest challenges in ranked order of potential, the Expert Panel will provide a valuable input for anyone working with these challenges. Note to editors: Dean T Jamison and Bjørn Lomborg are available for interview. Recent articles on Copenhagen Consensus research: Reuters: Broad climate fight best, not just gas cuts – study (May 8, 2008), Study urges UN force to back coup-risk democracies (April 22, 2008), Micronutrients, education keys to end hunger - study (April 4, 2008), Security spending fails to curb terror toll - study (March 5, 2008). For interviews, comments or to enquire about media accreditation to the Copenhagen Consensus 2008, contact Head of Communication Tommy Petersen, tp.ccc@cbs.dk, +4538152252. For more details on Copenhagen Consensus 2008, visit www.copenhagenconsensus.com COPENHAGEN CONSENSUS CENTER COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL • SOLBJERG PLADS 3 • 2000 FREDERIKSBERG • DENMARK +45 3815 2255 • INFO.CCC@CBS.DK • WWW.COPENHAGENCONSENSUS.COM