Which diseases does our aid need to be focused on?

The WHO

Which diseases does our aid need to be focused on? Many immediately say "AIDS - Kenya" or "Malaria - Africa". But is this really what we should be focusing our aid on?

The WHO (world health organisation) has three types of classification for disease;

Group 1 - Infectious/Communicable diseases grouped with maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions

Group 2 - Non-communicable diseases (NCD's) such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers or diabetes

Group 3 - Injury related disease, which can be intentional or not intentional (note: the definition of disease is anything that harms the normal functioning of the body thus injuries are counted as a disease).

During 1990-2002 there was a great change in the types of diseases affecting most people;

 - Group 1 (before 1992) was responsible for 32% of all global deaths, with the major diseases of AIDS, TB and Malaria accounting for 10% of that. However during '92-'02, deaths from HIV/AIDS accelerated from 2% to 14% but most other infectious diseases declined (bar TB and Malaria). This left the group 1 figure unchanged at 32% for 2002.

- Group 2 saw its figure rise by 10% and therefore accounted for 59% of global deaths in 2002. Over 80% of deaths from diseases in group 2 came from low and middle income countries.

- Group 3 remained unchanged like group 1, accounting for 9 % of global deaths.

The interesting fact is that in 2005, non-communicable diseases killed more people than AIDS, TB and malaria combined, but yet we see much of our aid donated to the diseases such as AIDS, TB and malaria. But why is this?

The answer is probably because these communicable diseases are treatable and/or preventable more easily and more cheaply than the NCD's but with NCD's accounting for more and more deaths each year, the government should constantly be reviewing their recipients of the aid to ensure that it is beneficial for the development of the global community in the future.