Health

Ian Gust

Professorial Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.

Marcel Tanner

Director of the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel.

Yves Champey

Advisor to the Director General of Evry Genopole in France.

Richard Laing

Medical officer at the WHO and author of the Priority Medicines for Europe and the World report.

Technology is always part of the solution, but is more enabling than transforming. Ian Gust
Health systems are not very well developed and/or poorly strengthened. We need a ‘magic gun’, effective health systems, instead of only ‘magic bullets’, such as new drugs or vaccines for malaria, HIV, tuberculosis etcetera. Marcel Tanner
Biotechnology can play a role on the treatment side, not on the prevention side. For example for the production of nutraceuticals,food with medical qualities due to specific nutrients like proteins and amino acids. But it will probably be restricted to rich communities, because it will be a costly treatment. Yves Champey

Health

The difference between the life expectancy of a Japanese girl born in 2005 is twice the life span of a baby girl born in Zimbabwe. One of the main reasons for this is the unequal access to health care. Furthermore, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis cause six million deaths each year. The causes are numerous: poverty, inadequate medical facilities, failure to control epidemics, political considerations, etcetera.

The gap between over- and undernourishment is widening. How can we stop both developments and increase life expectancy for all? Can biotechnology play a role?

This website was open for discussion from April 9 to May 28 2008.
We thank all the participants. The results of the discussion will be used in an advice to the Dutch Minister of the Environment. If you would like to receive the results, please send an e-mail to info@globalchange-discussion.org


May 8 2008 10:41Martha Byanyima, Rwanda Horticulture Export Standards Initiative (RHESI)

We are aware of the benefits that biotechnology brings into securing food for all especially the poor, question should be at what cost and who meets the cost? Governments need policies that demonstrate that this will not be just an avenue for corporate interests and exploit the poor and vulnerable who deperately need food but a long term sustainable and affordable solution to food security and poverty

May 8 2008 10:42Martha Byanyima, Rwanda Horticulture Export Standards Initiative (RHESI)

We are aware of the benefits that biotechnology brings into securing food for all especially the poor, question should be at what cost and who meets the cost? Governments need policies that demonstrate that this will not be just an avenue for corporate interests to exploit the poor and vulnerable who deperately need food but a long term sustainable and affordable solution to food security and poverty

May 22 2008 01:29griffioen, griffioen

getting sick has always been a part of life. It is not to be controlled by pills (that really doesn’t work in the longrun, those bacteria and viruses will outsmart us) but by less pollution, less chemicals, less warfare and other stressfactors.