Economic and social development, not to mention quality of life, in developing countries are constrained by many factors, including disease. For many of these diseases there are effective interventions that would alleviate much or most of the disease – we know how to help but choose not to. For those diseases where there are no or poor interventions available, the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries have chosen not to develop new and better interventions because there is no money to pay for them – no profit. In both cases, not helping is a deliberate choice based on self-interest in the developed world.

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