h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wish I could invent a 100% effective and cheap vaccine for malaria. More importantly, I wish it could be made free distributable.

Now that would be a good thing. On a similar note, I wish I could invent a needle-free injection system which was cheaper, easier and more reliable than using hypodermics. Why? Because I'm terrified of needles.

I used to work for the Wellcome Trust, a medical charity who fund the vast majority of malaria research in the world. Unlike cancer and other pan-global diseases, drugs companies don't fund research into what is primarily a developing world disease because there is no money in the final product.

Sad but true.

The whole situation stinks, I know. Someone ought to write an article about it...come to think of it, why don't I do it?

That what I think about every time there is some AIDS debate. How much we do out of a disease so easy to avoid, when so little is done for a disease where all you need is being stung by a mosquito.

This is what always pisses me off about people who bang on about how important intelligence is, and how there aren't enough clever people in the world. The solutions to most of the world's problems, such as malaria, are staring us right in the face. What's lacking is not innovation or problem solving ability but the moral and political will to deal with problems.

The dream of a malaria free world is realisable *because* the drugs exist right now to deal with the disease, such as artemesinin. Yet the people most in need of it don't get it. I despair.