Links
Swine flu: rich nations' spending spurs ethics row
As billions of dollars are mustered for vaccines, Tamiflu and face masks to combat swine flu, a bitter debate about equity is starting to swirl.
Some critics say the spending is so imbalanced that it amounts to health apartheid, protecting rich countries against H1N1 but leaving poor nations to fend for themselves.
Others argue gargantuan sums are being spent on a disease that is no more lethal than seasonal flu, which is grotesquely disproportionate when thousands die each day of less media-friendly diseases.
"It's another example of the gap between the north and south," said Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
"In the (wealthy countries of the) north, vaccines are being stockpiled, antiviral drugs are being stockpiled, all with the risk that these things will not be effective," he said in an interview with AFP.
"In the (poor countries of the) south, there are neither diagnostics nor treatment."