| T H E N I H C A T A L Y S T | J U L Y – A U G U S T 2007 |
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Food for ThoughtCelebrating Global Disease Control |
by Evan Galloway |
Books—especially when they're free and filled with vital health information—"can save lives," Roger Glass, director of the Fogarty International Center at NIH, told a gathering of international scientists, economists, and health policy experts who came to NIH June 11 to review the goals and accomplishments of the Disease Control Priorities Project.
The occasion was the one-year anniversary of the project's influential publication: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, second edition (DCP2). Dedicated to finding public health "best buys," the creators of the DCP2 aim to educate policymakers, philanthropists, and health advocates about the investments that save the most lives.
They suggest that some of the most cost-effective and sometimes overlooked lifesavers are childhood vaccinations, taxation of tobacco products, enforcement of traffic regulations, and the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease using cost-effective drugs, such as aspirin.
Donor skepticism of the value of investing in such endeavors can be overcome by the scientific information presented in books like DCP2, participants agreed. Indeed, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has promoted the book as required reading for individuals involved in funding health initiatives and for policymakers in governments seeking public health aid. Moreover, all of the project's publications, including the 1400-page DCP2, can be accessed online for free at http://www.dcp2.org.
Anyone can create and download their own book with title page, selecting specific chapters from the DCP2. Promisingly, the DCP2 website has accumulated over a half-million site views in the past year, with 83 percent of the visitors coming from developing countries.