UK funding for infectious disease research neglects key areas

UK funding for infectious diseases research is neglecting some of the diseases that result in the highest rates of death and disability, according to a paper published today by The Lancet Infectious Diseases . The research, which was undertaken by academics at UCL, Imperial College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is the first ever detailed assessment of infectious diseases investments made by funding organisations to UK institutions. The study shows that gastrointestinal infections, antimicrobial resistance, and some neglected tropical diseases such as trachoma, the commonest infectious cause of blindness globally, receive particularly low levels of investment from UK funders, relative to the disability and death that they cause. The UK is the second largest investor in global health worldwide. Between 1997 and 2010, non-commercial funders such as the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (MRC) invested £2.6 billion in research into infectious diseases. Gastrointestinal diseases received just 9.7 per cent (£254 million) of overall funding, despite being estimated to account for 22.2 per cent of deaths due to infectious disease in 2004. In contrast, HIV, which causes a comparable number of deaths to gastrointestinal disease, received almost twice the amount of funding (£460 million, or 17.7 per cent of the overall amount) between 1997 and 2010.