Neglected Tropical Diseases

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Monday 3rd April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for securing this debate and, as ever, for opening it so effectively. I declare an interest: I am a trustee of the Malaria Consortium, a position that I took over from the noble Baroness.

[Baroness Hayman]

I shall not take up more time, but I did not declare my interests at the beginning of my speech, which I should have done. I therefore do so now: they are as recorded in the register.

[Baroness Northover]

I remember the huge excitement of the London meeting in 2012, when the UK, by that stage moving towards spending 0.7% of GNI on aid, as so long promised, was able to increase its commitment on neglected tropical diseases so substantially, by an additional £195 million. I was proud to be part of DfID’s ministerial team at the time and recall the amazing briefings that I was given by committed experts not only from the department but from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine—including on how you pronounce the names of all these various diseases.

As the noble Baroness has pointed out, NTDs affect more than 1.3 billion people worldwide and cause half a million deaths each year. They cause chronic disability, disfigurement, stigma and ill health. They disproportionately affect the poor and marginalised.

It is vital for delivering the SDGs that we address the NTDs. Of course, there is goal 3 on healthy lives, but it is much more than that. The SDGs aim to eliminate extreme poverty while leaving no one behind. It is the poorest and those with disabilities who are so often left behind. Tackling these diseases is part of the overall strategy of all the SDGs. In doing so, we need to focus on research, and here the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have been so important, and the UK has had such strengths.

We need to make sure that treatments and preventive measures, such as vaccines, are coming forward and that we get them where they are needed. We need also to ensure that we have adequate surveillance. This is, of course, vital for understanding a country’s true burden of disease, as well as for securing and achieving intervention, detecting the last cases and, when and if we are in that fortunate position, making sure that there is no resurgence. I urge the Government to use their position as a leader in this area to encourage others to increase their own support. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, mentioned the upcoming summit in Geneva towards the end of April as a key opportunity for this. I, too, ask whether the Secretary of State will attend.

Like the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, I want to ask about the Government’s Ross fund, announced by the former Chancellor in the autumn of 2015. It seems an absolute age ago, but it included £200 million to tackle NTDs. As far as I know, there have been no announcements yet relating to NTDs. Can the Minster clarify what is happening? It has also been flagged to those of us speaking today that leprosy remains a neglected disease, where others are no longer so neglected. Will the Minister comment on this?

I come now to the eradication of certain NTDs: it is fantastic that we have reached that point. We had the wonderful visit from President Carter last year—in 1986, Guinea worm disease affected 3.5 million people; now, it is almost eradicated. President Carter said that he hoped to outlast the last Guinea worm. I am delighted that the former President is still with us and I want to ask about those last Guinea worms. Have we almost reached that point and do we have any information on other NTDs which are on their way out?

Finally and most importantly, what assessment has DfID made of the effect of Brexit in this area? We know that scientists working in the United Kingdom come from many different parts of the world, but especially from the EU. What are we doing to encourage them to stay? How can we make sure that they know that the UK’s leadership in this area, as in many others, depends so much on them and that we are very grateful to them? I look forward to the Minister’s responses in this vital area, which is so important for the health of the poorest around the world, and where the United Kingdom has such a proud record.

Millennium Development Goals: Women and Girls

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Monday 9th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

It is extremely important to get girls as well as boys into school. A lot of progress has been made and there is almost gender parity, except in areas where there is conflict and, particularly, rural areas. The noble Baroness rightly highlights the project in Nigeria. We are working with UNICEF to manage the girls’ education project, which aims to get 1 million girls in school, and the results monitoring process has been agreed with UNICEF and is being implemented.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, as the Minister acknowledged, the goal relating to maternal mortality reduction will not be met by 2015. However, a great deal has been achieved by programmes such as Making It Happen by the Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and I declare an interest as a supporter. Will the Minister assure the House that support from her department for progress like this that has made a huge difference will continue, so that this is not unfinished business past 2015?

[Baroness Northover]

It certainly must not be allowed to be unfinished business after 2015. The noble Baroness is right that progress has been made—maternal mortality has dropped by 45%—but we need to take that much further forward.

Gender Equality: Developing Nations

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Thursday 5th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

My Lords, the noble Baroness is quite right about the risks girls often take in seeking an education. I hope that I can reassure her by saying that one of our focuses now is to try to ensure that the most vulnerable girls and boys are able to get into school safely, and not only to primary school but to progress on to secondary school. The very fact that they can get there is an indication that they have actually succeeded in primary school.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I have recently returned from Sierra Leone where all the schools have been closed for almost nine months. This has had a devastating effect on the education of girls in particular, many of whom will never return to school now and among whom there are very disturbing reports of increased rates of sexual exploitation, early marriage and teenage pregnancy. Can the Minister assure me that Her Majesty’s Government will continue to support the outstanding efforts on the part of both UK government bodies and NGOs, which I was privileged to witness in that country, not only right until the end of the Ebola outbreak, which is far from finished, but also in the longer term for rebuilding education and health in that very needy country?

[Baroness Northover]

I thank the noble Baroness for her tribute to the work that we are doing in Sierra Leone, and I also pay tribute to that work, which has been outstanding. We are trying to get Ebola down to zero cases because that is crucial. We want to see the schools reopen, and at the moment we are focused on how to rebuild within Sierra Leone. However, she is quite right to talk about the special vulnerability of women and girls. We are seeking to protect them and ensure that the risks that she has talked about do not come to fruition.

Ebola

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Wednesday 4th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I am sure that there will be continued discussion as to the lessons we must learn. However, it was welcome that the WHO held a special session to look at some of those lessons and try to take that forward.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, while welcoming the progress that the noble Baroness outlined and the recognition that I understand is to come of British citizens who contributed to that progress, would she agree that the next phase of the fight in Sierra Leone will be even more challenging: not to let up on the drive to zero cases in the current outbreak; to make up for the healthcare that has not been given in terms of immunisations, maternity and neonatal care, malaria and NTDs; and to provide the structures for robust responses to any outbreaks that might occur in future?

[Baroness Northover]

Indeed, the noble Baroness is right that we cannot be complacent. As I am sure she knows, we need 42 days of an Ebola-free situation in all the relevant countries. We then need to reconstruct. That needs to be transparent and accountable. When I met the relevant Ministers from Sierra Leone, that was certainly something I emphasised from the UK Government.

Health: Ebola

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Wednesday 15th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I am very happy to reassure my noble friend that the Home Secretary is looking at this at the moment. Tier 2 skilled workers can indeed return to their home country for short periods to provide support and can take their annual leave to volunteer. However, the Home Secretary is looking at this.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, alongside the need for developing vaccines and cures for the diseases of the poor that the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, described, is there not also a tremendous need to develop public health and basic health systems in the developing world in the future? On the Ebola crisis, does the Minister agree that, alongside our assistance on medical treatment services, it is very important that we also help on the prevention side by stopping transmission, getting good public information and sensitising communities? In that respect, will she endorse the work of the British NGO Restless Development—I declare a family interest—which has already sent 200 young Sierra Leonean volunteers to work in their own communities?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is quite right about the importance of public health in strengthening health systems and changing various cultural practices. I again pay tribute to those who are working there at the moment.

South Sudan

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Tuesday 8th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I too pay tribute to those who are working in these extremely difficult circumstances. The right reverend Prelate will know that the United Kingdom is a leading donor. We are meeting about 7.5% of the total appeal at the moment and working to support all the agencies that are managing to get in. We do not underestimate the difficulties.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee. Does the noble Baroness agree that it is essential to flag up and respond to these complex and developing crises, which can be just as devastating if not as instantly newsworthy as the sudden catastrophic natural disaster?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Of course it is the fact that this is a very fragile state which leads to the problems that we are indentifying here. It is one of the reasons too why it is important to act early and to plan ahead, which the United Kingdom is seeking to do.

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

As the noble Lord knows, the two things go closely together. I will have to look carefully at what his question implied. Of course, both the global fund and DfID are well aware of that interrelationship. Where you have patients suffering from TB, especially when it is multidrug resistant TB, you often have HIV going alongside, so the two are being tackled together. I will need to look at the noble Lord’s question to see whether there is something in it that I did not understand.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I echo the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, about the enormous benefits that the global fund has brought to international health and its commitment to transparency and to dealing with these issues when they arise. I declare my interest in malaria and neglected tropical diseases. Will Her Majesty’s Government encourage the global fund to look at partnership working and integrating programmes, particularly on maternal and child health and neglected tropical diseases, as part of the post-2015 commitment to strengthening health systems and doing that from the bottom up rather than the top down?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. The global fund has had an effect across all those areas and I pay tribute to her work on neglected tropical diseases. DfID has been strongly supportive of that. There are a number of areas where obviously the work of the global fund is complementary. If you look at its aim to raise $15 billion, at the moment $37 billion across this whole area is coming from the developing countries, supporting the kind of work that the noble Baroness is talking about.

Global Partnership for Aid Effectiveness

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I can give the noble Lord that assurance. He will note that it is a crucial part of the arrangements in the new deal for fragile states, and it also underlies and is an extremely important part of our principles regarding where we are willing to give budget support.

[Baroness Hayman]

My Lords, although I fully support the development of technical indicators for aid effectiveness, will the Minister confirm that there is manifold evidence that the most effective form of aid is that which concentrates on the social, economic and educational development of women?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right, which is why we have put women and girls very much at the centre of what DfID does. Education is part of that. As for the stages of development of various countries, I note that the countries that are most developed have the highest levels of educational enrolment and adult literacy.

Health: Tropical Diseases

Debate between Baroness Hayman and Baroness Northover

Thursday 26th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what international support they expect to receive for the new Department for International Development initiative to combat neglected tropical diseases announced on 21 January.

[Baroness Northover]

The Government have just announced a fivefold increase in support for neglected tropical diseases. This will help to protect more than 140 million people worldwide. It will strengthen the UK’s partnerships with the World Health Organisation, foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carter Center, other donors, pharmaceutical companies that are making drug donations, the endemic countries and non-governmental organisations.

[Baroness Hayman]

I welcome that very positive response from the Minister and the Government’s initiative in this field. I should declare a non-financial interest as a trustee of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which works to develop new vaccines for diseases such as human hook worm and on mass drug administration programmes.

Does the Minister agree that diseases such as guinea worm, river blindness and schistosomiasis not only devastate the health, education and employment prospects of hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people but impede progress towards the achievement of the millennium development goals? Given that eradication is a real possibility and that intervention is so cost-effective, will the Government do all they can to ensure that generous donors, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other countries continue their efforts so that we can rid the world of these truly awful diseases?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. I pay tribute to her and to her husband Martin Hayman for all that they have done in this field. When this announcement was made, my honourable friend Stephen O’Brien said:

“British support will take the neglected out of neglected tropical diseases”.

That is clearly critical. The noble Baroness is absolutely right: these are devastating diseases. The United Kingdom can help gear up what is happening elsewhere. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been remarkable in what it has managed to achieve, as has the Carter Center. The possible elimination of guinea worm by 2015 would be the second human disease that we have managed to eliminate.