The latest weapon in the fight against disease DOES surprise me

A post by Sue Desmond-Hellman, CEO at  the  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on LinkedIn that randomly found its way into  my inbox is titled "The latest weapon in the fight against disease might surprise you" - hence the title of this  blog.

Desmond-Hellman makes the case for data as a resource  for turning the tide on a number of conditions.  Nothing  surprising there.  But it seems having spent much of her life as a clinical scientist, white coated (I assume) in medical laboratories she has had an amazing light bulb moment and realised that "non-medical data " can be  used "to complement medical research and  transform the lives of entire populations".

And how did she come to this realisation? Because of, in her words, a "great example" that she got to  hear about in Cincinnati, Ohio in the good old USA.    What has happened there?   " By combining existing data  from a variety of  sources, a team from the Children's Hospital has linked poor housing conditions in a particular neighbourhood to high levels  of  chronic asthma among children"  WOW!  a revelation indeed! And why is it a mind boggling, new weapon?  because now, this simple co-relation between poor housing and chronic asthma has shown that "medical  therapies, such as a steroid inhaler or airway opener  muscle relaxant like albuterol are only providing short-term fixes". The real solution to "ensure that children are not constantly returning to hospital, ..lies in making sure  their homes are free from mould, water damage, cockroaches and other pests"   WOW! again.

When did the wisdom of preventive health care completely leave health  professionals, that it has to be brought in again as a new  invention of the 21st century?  Backed by a new concept no less,  of precision public health.

 Desmond-Hellman also  talks about the use of technology such as GPS systems to map outbreaks of infectious diseases such as the Zika virus.  Here she is on better  ground, but her comparison of Zika control in Haiti with Zika control in Florida, only serves to illustrate a point that has as much to do with the type of resources  available  to health systems - the poverty of states as well as neighbourhoods  - as it does with technology.

A prayer for those  pushing 60 year and beyond, includes the line "free us of the notion that simply because we have lived a long time, we are wiser than  those  that  have not lived so long" .  I am afraid Sue Desmond-Hellman has not helped answer that prayer.  

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