Planet in Peril: An Atlas of Current Threats to People and the Environment

Planet in peril Increasingly unequal

The disparity in the wealth of various parts of the world explains to a large extent the differences in their overall state of health. A little Japanese girl born in 2005 has an average life expec- tancy of 85 years, more than twice the life span of a baby girl in Zimbabwe (36 years, 2003 data). The reasons for this scandalous imbalance are well known: poverty, inadequate medical facilities, failure to control epidemics, and the high financial return expec- ted of investment inmedical research. The quality of treatment for the com- monest complaints (measles, asthma, heart disease, psychiatric difficulties, cancer) is simply lower in poor coun- tries, and as a result they kill or disable many more people. Every dayHIV-Aids kills 8,000 peo- ple (mainly young adults) and mala- ria another 3,000 (mainly children). Tuberculosis claims 6,000more lives. These three big pandemics cause six million deaths every year, mainly in the poorest communities, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. But the area

they affect is spreading. The United Nations Security Council and the United States govern- ment (National Security Council) have stressed that the health crisis is threatening the political stability of many countries and might damage US interests. Yet the world has all the resources it needs to solve the pro- blem. Rather than spending $150bn on the war in Iraq (the final cost will certainly exceed this figure) the US could have footed the whole world’s health care bill for four years. But, disregarding for a moment our lack of humanitarian ambition and strategic vision, even more insi- dious processes are at work sapping themedical resources of countries that try against the odds to develop effective ways of combating ill health. First, the leading drug firms, aka Big Pharma, make the whole world pay for their increasingly financially oriented business model. They main- tain that only scrupulous compliance with patent rules can secure present

Unequal access to health care is the cruellest, most widespread attack on human integrity. Coming on top of longstanding differences in standards of living, the balance of power that lets North dominate South inflicts chronic bad health on whole countries, sapping any attempt at development.

La tuberculose en Afrique subsaharienne et dans les pays de la Communauté des Etats indépendants

800

Sub-Saharan Africa

Southeast Asia

700

600

500

South Asia

400

300

ex-Soviet Union

200

over 500 300 to 500 150 to 300

50 to 150 20 to 50 under 20

Latin America and Caribbean

100

No data available

Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2005 , collated data from WHO and UNICEF for 2003.

1990 2003

0

36 I L’A TLAS DU M ONDE DIPLOMATIQUE