EU doubles budget to fight infectious diseases
The German Government has advocated a strong increase in European Union funding for the fight against infectious diseases, because they are the most common cause of death. Infectious diseases account for around 17 million fatalities world-wide each year, according to Wolf-Michael Catenhusen, Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. "These diseases are constantly confronting researchers and public health systems with new challenges" he said, at the start of the European conference on infectious diseases in Dresden. "Pathogens, such as the AIDS-causing HIV virus or the hepatitis virus, pose a threat to human health as a result of their growing resistance to existing antibiotics." Funding for the thematic programme area "Quality of life and management of living resources" within the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) for research, technological Development and Demonstration (RTD) amounts to 2.4 billion euro, nearly 50% more than in FP4. "Of this amount, 300 million euro will go for the programme on 'Control of infectious diseases', said Minister Catenhusen. "This initiative covers the entire spectrum of research and development projects in the fields of prevention, diagnostics, therapy, and public health." He hoped that, by pooling European competence in this area of research, it would be possible to achieve rapid implementation of newly gained research knowledge for the benefit of mankind. "The intention is for scientists in the various areas of medicine to translate their knowledge into marketable products in direct cooperation with the European pharmaceutical industry," he said. "The aim is also to strengthen EU competitiveness and to contribute towards achieving EU employment policy. The pooling of European competence is urgently needed to attain new research results."
Countries
Germany