The torch is lit and burning, thank you!
CMAJ 1998;158:1011-3
See response from: B.J. Ward and J.D. MacLean
The article "First the bad news . . ." (CMAJ 1997;157[12]:1675-6 [full text]), by Drs. J. Dick MacLean and Brian J. Ward is in general a succinct and informative summary of recent news on tropical medicine. However, the authors assert that a bad-news item has been the closure of the Health Sciences Division at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and they claim that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) "has been too slow to pick up the torch dropped by IDRC" (emphasis added). These statements could not be further from the truth. The IDRC did not close its Health Sciences Division any more than it closed its Social Sciences or Environmental Sciences divisions. What it did was move away from a unidisciplinary approach to development research and toward defining 6 development research themes and 15 programming units that zero in on specific issues, including health-related problems.
The
Strategies and Policies for Healthy Societies theme
incorporates 3 program initiatives with a strong health
component. Moreover, health research is present in other
programs that focus on the impact of macroeconomic
policies and structural adjustment programs on health and
health care in the South. Since the "closure"
of the Health Sciences Division, the IDRC has spent $12.7
million funding 50 health projects in 35 countries.
Furthermore, the IDRC has been active in developing a new
initiative on lung problems, which account for 25% of the
total burden of disease in developing countries. This
initiative focuses mainly on acute respiratory infections
such as viral pneumonias and tuberculosis. The IDRC has
recently renewed its commitment to the Essential Health
Intervention Project in Tanzania1 with another
disbursement of $1 million and has moved on to the next
phase of its support for
insecticide-treated bed nets through a grant that will be
used to investigate the use of the nets in sub-Saharan
Africa.
The claims in the article not only damage the IDRC's hard-earned prestige and credibility in Canada and internationally but are also unfair to dedicated program staff who are struggling to keep the torch burning in times of dwindling resources.
Enis Baris, MD, MSc, PhD
Chief Scientist
Strategies and Policies for Healthy Societies
Programs Branch
International Development Research Centre
Ottawa, Ont.
Reference
- Finlay JF, Law MM, Gelmon LJ, de Savigny D. A new Canadian health care initiative in Tanzania. CMAJ 1995;153:1081-5.
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