In poor countries, where heart disease represents more than a quarter of the death toll, these cheap drugs are often unavailable. Spending just $200 million getting them to poor countries would avert 300,000 deaths each year. The lower burden on health systems, and the economic benefits, mean that an extra dollar spent on heart disease in a developing nation would achieve $25 worth of good.
When I started my research related (indirectly, yes, but still) to cardiovascular disease, I felt a little guilty because I thought it was a rich person's disease. That, of course, is false.
4 comments:
what exactly is a "rich person's disease?"
I guess it's shorthand for saying this:
It's less important to spend $50,000 on a triple bypass so someone can make it from age 75 to age 80 than it is to spend 50 cents on a mosquito net so someone can make it from age 5 to age 60.
Andrew
Perhaps when you put a name and face to this problem, the dollar value takes on a different relatavistic view. Grandma B (80 yrs. old)
Tomorrow makes 3 weeks of no opinions from the Evil Line. Does anyone else have the shakes?
Hi Esther! (I also have a Grandma B. Her name is Thelma.)
-Katie Brock
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