Genetic technology can narrow health divide - WHO
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Updated: 2002-04-30 11:17

From designer mosquitoes resistant to malaria to edible DNA vaccines against hepatitis B, tuberculosis and cholera, genetic research could save millions of lives in the developing world in the coming decades.

It has the potential to speed up the diagnosis of mysterious killers such as dengue fever, improve treatments for a wide range of diseases and narrow the inequalities in healthcare around the globe, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report launched on Tuesday.

"Genome research, if we handle it correctly, can change the world for all healthcare," said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the director general of the WHO.

"In particular, it has the potential to allow developing countries to leapfrog decades of medical development and bring their citizens greatly improved care and modern methods in the much more immediate future," she added in a statement.

The report focuses on how genetics can be used to attack infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS and addresses the ethical issues and practical problems to ensure genetic developments do not widen the gap between rich and poor nations.

POTATOES WITH MEASLES VACCINE

A consortium of international scientists is already mapping all the genes of the malaria-carrying Anopheles gambiae mosquito. After they finish later this year they plan to change its DNA so the malaria parasite will no longer be able to live inside it.

Eventually the researchers hope the GM mosquito will cross breed with other mosquitoes and prevent them from transmitting the parasite that kills up to three million people each year.

Scientists are also testing a DNA-based AIDS vaccine designed specifically for Africa and researchers are using the technology to produce cheap, edible vaccines in foods that can be freeze-dried and shipped anywhere in the world.

Professor David Weatherall, the lead author of the WHO report, said the technology will not change medicine overnight but developing countries must prepare themselves for the new technology to make the most of its possibilities.

"We tried to take a long-term view on what the role of the WHO should be in all of this," Weatherall said in an interview.

The report details the latest advances in genetic research which could make real inroads against the major infectious diseases.

Its aim is to help countries develop ethical and organisational frameworks to set the groundwork for the medical advancements to come.

"We think the WHO has an important role in trying to help the poorer countries start to evolve some sort of biotechnology," Weatherall said.

"What we don't want is for these developments to make it another area of high tech medicine that is going to widen the gap between rich and poor countries," he added.

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