The need to increase investment in diseases of the poor Poverty increases vulnerability to poor health. People in the poorest countries and communities are not only disproportionately affected by these diseases but also lack access to effective prevention and treatment. Poor health exacerbates poverty and limits social and economic development.
Ill health makes poor families poorer, through loss of earnings and expenditure on health care.
Adults with poor health are less productive workers and farmers. Children who are frequently ill do less well at school. Countries with healthy populations experience faster economic growth. Poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless people are healthy. Health is now recognised as critical to development and proposals to improve access to prevention and treatment interventions and to increase investment in research relevant to the health needs of poor countries are given an increasingly high priority at international level.