‘A very cruel exit’: UK’s aid cuts risk rapid return of treatable diseases

£200m project to eliminate avoidable blindness and disfigurement in Africa ends after funding is prematurely axedA chandelier sparkling in the background, the grandeur of Downing Street gleaming behind him, Boris Johnson looks into the camera and speaks with solemnity. He is marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, he says, to raise awareness of these “terrible afflictions … which impose an immense burden of suffering in developing countries”.Huge progress has been made, he says, in the fight against the diseases, not least as a result of British aid to some of the poorest parts of the world. But there is more – much more – to be done: more than a billion people are still at risk, he warns, and that is why the UK “fully supports” the World Health Organization’sbig elimination push over the next decade.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Global development Infectious diseases Medical research Microbiology Science Africa Aid World news Blindness and visual impairment Health Source Type: news