Tropical Diseases Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for International Development
Virendra Sharma
Main Page: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)Department Debates - View all Virendra Sharma's debates with the Department for International Development
(9 years, 1 month ago)
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Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on securing this important debate at the right time.
Since I first entered Parliament in 2007, I have been committed to development and healthcare issues. As a boy growing up in India, I saw the debilitating effects of malaria and parasites such as hookworm. Such conditions are not blind; they affect the very poorest in society. Developing nations face a competitive disadvantage. The west and the more developed nations have mostly eradicated such debilitating, but not necessarily life-threatening, diseases, but the countries with the greatest need often lack even the most basic tools for curing neglected tropical diseases.
I was proud to be in New York last month with four of my colleagues here in the Chamber for the global launch of the sustainable development goals. I pledge my support to two goals in particular: goal 3, on health and wellbeing for all people; and goal 5, on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
The UK currently invests £536 million in eliminating malaria. The Department for International Development has much to be proud of, but neglected tropical disease funding is being reassessed at the end of this year. NTD funding has to be protected and, as the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) said, increased where possible. If there is not a predominantly decent level of health across the globe, how can the world face the challenges of the 21st century? Speaking selfishly, if we meet global malaria targets by 2030, we will not only have saved more than 10 million lives but increased global economic output by $4 trillion. That represents a huge new market for British goods, manufacturing and know-how.
Some 44 million households worldwide, representing more than 150 million people, face catastrophic healthcare costs that can cripple them financially. If we can prevent such cruel, horrible diseases from developing, we can free millions of women and girls from lives of servitude when they have to care for sick and ill family members. They will be able to go to school, receive an education and be fully equipped to participate as full members of our society. The life-changing effect of the drugs we support can be immense, and the cost can be just a few pence. The burden of NTDs and malaria traps so many in a spiral of debt, sickness and poverty. We have much to offer, having gained so much ourselves, but although we have done so much, there is much left to do. I hope that by 2050 people will no longer be trapped in poverty spirals driven by sickness. Hopefully, we will help them to become full members of society.
I support the questions put by the hon. Member for Stafford to the Minister. If the Minister can answer all those questions, it will not only satisfy people but give confidence to wider society that the Government are committed to what they have already paid for.