£50m to tackle tropical diseases
24 September 2008
A £50 million boost to combat diseases like Aids, TB and malaria has been announced by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander.
At Labour's conference, Mr Alexander said one in four deaths in the world today were still caused by such diseases and water-borne diseases like diarrhoea.
"We need new drugs and vaccines. But we also need governments to provide the clinics, the doctors and nurses.
"And so to advance the global fight against neglected tropical diseases our Government will now invest a further £50 million to research, develop and distribute the drugs needed to banish the scourge of these terrible diseases."
Mr Alexander also announced £70 million to improve food security and the livelihoods of those at cyclone risk in Bangladesh and £42 million of humanitarian assistance for those threatened with starvation in the Horn of Africa.
"With 17 million people today facing hunger in the Horn of Africa we will not walk by on the other side," he pledged.
Rising food prices across the world had seen the return of food riots with lost growth from the financial turbulence "falling hardest on the poorest in every country".
These "new circumstances" demanded a "new settlement at home and abroad" on the role of the market and government.
Markets could be a "useful servant but without limits can be a cruel and capricious master".
He vowed: "Today, in the face of these new challenges, we won't bow, or bend or flinch as we turn our progressive ideals into practical actions. If the threat of global poverty is now rising, as Labour we won't abandon our efforts to make poverty history. We step up the fight instead."
