Prioridades para o financiamento das doenças tropicais negligenciadas

A PLoS Medicine publicou recentemente um material muito interessante sobre o financiamento da pesquisa em doenças tropicais negligenciadas:

Which New Approaches to Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases Show Promise?

O debate principalmente se foca nas seguintes perguntas: houve uma ênfase exagerada na pesquisa de mecanismos biomédicos e desenvolvimento de drogas em detrimento do conhecimento dos determinantes sociais das doenças?

O texto de background da revista diz:

This PLoS Medicine Debate examines the different approaches that can be taken to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Some commentators, like Jerry Spiegel and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, feel there has been too much focus on the biomedical mechanisms and drug development for NTDs, at the expense of attention to the social determinants of disease. Burton Singer argues that this represents another example of the inappropriate “overmedicalization” of contemporary tropical disease control. Peter Hotez and colleagues, in contrast, argue that the best return on investment will continue to be mass drug administration for NTDs.

O artigo mereceu um interessante comentário do blog do The Scientist: Neglected diseases: Teach or treat?

Ilustração: EXTENT OF NEGLECT, COUNTRIES WITH ENDEMIC DISTRIBUTION OF MULTIPLE NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES " ENDEMIC PARASITOSIS". vista no blog ONE WORLD, ONE PEOPLE.