It’s disappointing that Theresa May appeared to miss a major opportunity this week, when boosting trade with Nigeria (Report, 30 August). The UK should also be encouraging increased investment of Nigerian government revenue towards cutting-cases and deaths from easily preventable diseases like malaria, and boosting health systems. Nigeria has the highest malaria death burden in the world, with more than 100,000 people losing their lives last year. Children under five and pregnant women are at particularly high risk. It is impossible to separate the issue of trade from the issue of healthier nations, when malaria traps people in poverty, prevents children from attending school and costs Africa more than £8bn and as much as 1.3% of GDP every year in the worst affected countries.
The Commonwealth heads of government meeting earlier this year made an important pledge to halve malaria in the Commonwealth by 2023 and put the world on a path toward ending this deadly disease. UK aid and leadership has a vital role to play. As the UK continues as Commonwealth chair-in-office for the next 18 months, the government has important opportunities to push for bolder action to tackle malaria with Commonwealth counterparts. It must use them.
Catherine West MP
Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green; vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on malaria
from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PV0x5k
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
No comments:
Post a Comment