BRICS to jointly fight tuberculosis, Ebola
December 6, 2014, 6:27 am

According to new research by Washington-based Center for Global Development and AidData, the largest number of Chinese aid projects in Africa is in the health sector, totaling 149 projects accounting for $676 million [Xinhua]

The ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have agreed to boost the distribution of anti-tuberculosis medicine among affected people in BRICS countries and other poor nations.

The joint strategy is expected to be implemented from March 2015.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that almost half of the world’s tuberculosis cases are in the BRICS countries.

“BRICS group account for 46% of all incident cases of tuberculosis and 40% of all tuberculosis-related mortality. China and India alone account for almost 40% of the estimated global burden of tuberculosis,” says a WHO report.

The BRICS health ministers who met in Brazil on Friday also discussed action to fight Ebola, malnutrition and AIDS. They agreed to establish a working group to deal with the spread of the Ebola virus.

BRICS face several common health challenges: burdens from communicable and noncommunicable diseases, inequitable access to health services, growing health-care costs, substantial private spending on health care, and large private health sectors.

The World Bank says India spends the least among the BRICS nations on healthcare.

Government spending on health as a proportion of gross domestic product is relatively low in China (2.9%), India (1.0%) and the Russian Federation (3.7%), but it is higher in Brazil (4.3%) and South Africa (4.1%).

In Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa, private financing accounts for 54%, 44%, 69%, 40% and 52% of total health spending, respectively, says the World Bank in a 2014 report.

Meanwhile, BRICS leaders in November reaffirmed their disappointment and serious concern over the non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund ( IMF) reforms at a meeting of the five leaders on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane.

In a statement released after the meeting, the leaders agreed that the slow action on IMF reforms undermined the “legitimacy and credibility” of IMF.

“Undue delays in ratifying the 2010 agreement are in contradiction with the joint commitment by the G20 Leaders since 2009,” the statement said, adding that if the United States fails to ratify the reform agreement by the year-end, the G20 should schedule a discussion of the options for the IMF future reform in January 2015.

TBP and Agencies