Maryanne,
Your view is clearly NOT cynical. The AIDS/HIV
epidemic in Africa is another such case, and even still in this country, because
most people still associate it with homosexuals and intravenous drug users, it
doesn't get the resources it might.
The reality is, creating and testing drugs costs a lot
of money, much more than a third world country can spend. Drug companies
take on the financial risk only where there is the potential of significant
return on investment (especially these days, where stock market performance is
so important, and is now based on results). In the USA, much of the
population is quite blind to the real life and death health situations
that exist in other parts of the world. And that may come back to haunt
us...or already has.
Mike Sofen
Santa Cruz, CA USA
Like
I said, they figured that a vaccine could be developed for this about
10 years or so ago, but it wouldn't be economically viable. They could
have been trying it out for all these years in Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, the
Ukraine, Romania....but who in these countries is going to buy it? I bet those
pharmaceutical companies are kicking themselves now.
If
that sounds cynical, it is. We don't even KNOW how many people in Egypt
have had or died from WNV...much less how many equines. WNV wasn't an
important enough disease until it could be caught by people with enough
money to pay for vaccines.
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo,
Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net
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