Neglected Tropical Diseases

Baroness Northover Excerpts

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.