The real story is far more profound. We can avoid millions of deaths. The story begins with a simple test.
Arguably, improving the availability of testing and treatment has a more powerful effect on global health than the quality of treatment alone. Diagnostic and therapeutic solutions that are half as effective but reach 100 times more people will make a bigger difference.
Every year or so, a new epidemic rages somewhere. It has been that way for millennia. There is evidence the disease originally known as the “plague” struck civilization over 5,000 years go. Each time, our society suffers major social and economic setbacks.
Today, we seem conditioned to accept some level of disease as a way of life. Every year, people get sick and die as a result. Influenza is a good example. In many of these cases, it takes too long to determine the cause and deliver the right help. It’s not just the disease, but our ability to detect and react quickly.
Globally, we spend billions constantly inventing better preventions and therapies for diseases. This effort has yielded incredible improvements in healthcare.
As efficacy steadily increases, however, the parallel problem of availability is preventing these advancements from reaching the majority of the population. It has been estimated that 4/5ths of the global population does not have reliable access to adequate healthcare.
The challenge begins with early, cheap, and and fast detection. After all, there is no treatment without detection. It must be highly available to affected populations. For example, the Gates Foundation, known for delivering vaccines and treatments to developing countries, uses information gathered from detection to decide where to focus their resources.
Take a look at my August 4, 2020 article on Availability for a discussion on self-testing.
And remember, fighting a pandemic is a team sport. We are all in this together.
RWH
Medical Technology Insights 