The media can help in the global fight against disease, both as a watchdog for poor practices, and a champion for successful research.

Significant progress has been made in recent years by, for example, using bednets to control malaria, or antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS. Yet many of the challenges remain as daunting as they were in Mexico City four years ago, at the last ministerial meeting – particularly in the face of new epidemics and climate change.

The good news is that research funding for the major diseases affecting the developing world is increasing rapidly, thanks partly to some organisations, as well as increased interest from international aid agencies and pharmaceutical companies.

This goes some way to addressing the well-publicised statistic that 90 per cent of the world’s spending on medical research focuses on ten per cent of its population’s needs. This charge was made at the beginning of the decade by the Global Forum on Health Research – one of the Bamako meeting’s main organisers.

But the media’s role in promoting better health isn’t purely public relations. Engaging the public in debates about designing and delivering health systems is just as important.

The media has always taken pride in its watchdog role, be it exposing fraudulent medical practices such as untested HIV/AIDS treatments, ensuring proper conduct in clinical trials, or highlighting poor healthcare facilities and how intellectual property laws can block access to affordable treatments.

This role will be as crucial as ever as health systems grow in social importance.

More challenging, but equally valuable, is journalists’ role in scrutinising why governments and international agencies fail to get relevant research carried out and findings put into practice.

The reasons may vary, ranging from blinkered priority setting (with inadequate attention on the less ‘glamorous’ chronic diseases), to a lack of coordination between those responsible for healthcare, or even sheer incompetence.

Whatever the reasons, the more the media flags up underperformance, the greater the public pressure on politicians to put things right.

Image to link: Worthing

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