BRICS Assume ‘Global Leadership’ for Eliminating Diseases
July 11—The BRICS countries announced a major new initiative on Sunday, July 6, the “BRI Poverty and Inequality CS Partnership for the Elimination of Socially-Determined Diseases (SDDs).” Its premise is that “health is a fundamental human right,” and its mission is to develop and mobilize the resources and capabilities required to “eliminate” the curable diseases which run rampant under the conditions of poverty and lack of adequate food, sanitation, housing, and health care in which billions of people are still condemned to live today.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva explained in the Summit’s Third Plenary:
“The BRICS are betting on science and technology transfer to put life in first place. In Brazil and around the world, income, schooling, gender, race and place of birth determine who gets sick and who dies. Many of the diseases that kill thousands in our countries … would already have been eradicated if they had affected the Global North…. There is no right to health without investment in basic sanitation, adequate food, quality education, decent housing, work and income…. We are cooperating and acting with solidarity rather than indifference. Putting human dignity at the center of our decisions.”
The Schiller Institute welcomes this BRICS initiative, its founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche having insisted in the third of her proposed Ten Principles for a New International Security and Development Architecture, that every nation requires a modern health system, because “the life expectancy of all people living must be prolonged to the fullest potential.”
The BRICS nations recognize that they “are well-positioned to assume global leadership in the elimination of SDDs by promoting research and development of innovative health approaches, vaccines, prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment,” their statement reads.
The new Partnership will coordinate “whole-of-government” approaches toward these diseases, “expanding access to remote and hard-to-reach areas, improving sanitation and housing conditions, tackling malnutrition and poverty, and leveraging innovative technologies—such as artificial intelligence, disease diagnostics, therapeutics, drugs and vaccines development, interoperable digital platforms, harmonized reporting systems, early detection mechanisms, surveillance, real-time data exchange, regulation, and integrated disease elimination tools.”
At the same time, “collaborative research, development, capacity-building, innovation, and technology transfer among members” will be geared up, “encouraging knowledge-sharing as a strategy to strengthen cooperation and drive innovative solutions adapted to local realities.”
Technical seminars, research network meetings and training activities, and talks with the New Development Bank on funding, are to go ahead immediately, while a more detailed “BRICS Roadmap” for accomplishing the goal is fleshed out.