BIRDS’ FLU RETHOUGHT WITH SCIENTIFIC OPENNESS

BIRDS’ FLU RETHOUGHT WITH SCIENTIFIC OPENNESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Birds flu struck the world as a pandemic just a few years back, creating fright night panic in some key cities over incoming overseas visitors that are afflicted with the ailment. Indonesia is among those countries hit hard in terms of transmission of the birds flu, and so the Indonesian case could be examined to rethink the health problem at hand.

What makes the birds flu hazard truly alarming is that over 80% of those afflicted die of the disease. It now seems that, on hindsight, the lack of scientific openness had inflated the destructive reach and impact of the bird flu pandemic.

There is over-consciousness about intellectual property piracy of course, which accounts for the behavior of self-constraint among research scientists. How far can that wall of secrecy be loosened up to effect a cross-border clamp down of the bird flu virus?

Below is an interesting reportage about the subject.

[Philippines, 03 April 2012]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/health/bird-flu/editorials/tackling-bird-flu-effectively-needs-scientific-openness-1.html

Tackling bird flu effectively needs scientific openness

David Dickson

2 March 2012

Efforts to limit publication of controversial bird flu research could end up doing more harm than good.

Last week, a 12-year-old boy in Indonesia died after becoming infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. His death brought the global death toll to 347 since the disease was first reported among humans in 2005.

At first sight the figure does not look too alarming compared to the many millions that die from other infectious diseases. And although the virus is usually fatal — up to 80 per cent of those infected die from it — the overall incidence of human infection remains relatively low.

This is because most people only get infected through contact with infected poultry. But what if the virus could spread between humans?

This spectre has now been raised by two teams of scientists, working at a medical centre in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin in the United States, respectively. Each team genetically altered the virus into a form that can pass between ferrets through the air — implying that a similar strain could evolve (or be created) that could spread between humans.

The consequences could be so disastrous that last year, a US body set up in 2005 to look at the potential biosecurity risks of laboratory-created organisms recommended that papers on the work submitted to the world's two leading scientific journals, Science and Nature, should not be published in full.

The argument of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) was that the information could be used by terrorist groups or individuals to produce a powerful biological weapon that could spark a deadly epidemic if released into the human population.

Risks of restriction

There is a strong logic to this argument. Withholding the technical details of the steps required to produce a deadly virus would certainly make it considerably more difficult for anyone to copy the process.

And some have advocated going even further to curtail access to such information with calls for a ban on all research that could lead to new, potentially lethal viruses. Their argument is that the threat such viruses would pose if they escaped from the laboratory is so great that nothing justifies the risk of even carrying out research for them.

But both arguments have flaws. Those seeking publication of the information in heavily edited form risk denying scientists access to data that could play an essential role in preparing defences against the virus, such as developing vaccines.

A complete ban on the research could have similar repercussions. Scientific understanding of the bird flu virus, how it spreads and how it mutates, is essential to minimise the chances of another flu pandemic. The flu virus that swept across the world in 1918 killed up to 20 per cent of those infected, causing an estimated 50 million deaths.

An alternative strategy

The scientific community has had intense discussions over what to do with the papers over the past few months.

Initially the NSABB suggested a solution could lie in publishing redacted (edited) versions of the papers with some of the key scientific and technical data omitted.

Both journals to which the research was submitted have been exploring how they might do this while making full versions of the papers available to scientists who have been vetted to ensure they would use the data responsibly.

But on close examination, this option has presented difficulties. For example, much of the technical data in one of the papers has already been presented at a scientific conference so attempts to prevent its further dissemination may be ineffective.

Another significant objection raised at a meeting organised by the WHO in Geneva two weeks ago (16 February) was the difficulty of reaching an international consensus on the criteria for vetting scientists who request the full data.

Concerns in perspective

Following the WHO meeting Nature said in an editorial that the benefits of open publication outweighed the risks identified so far, and that in principle "the papers should ultimately be published in full". [1]

Similarly the editor of Science said in a recent interview with the BBC that "our default position is that we have to publish in complete form". [2]

A final decision is awaiting further discussion at the WHO. But this position is brave, and correct.

There are substantial public health benefits in as many scientists as possible having access to the data if they are to understand potential changes to the virus.

These outweigh the advantages — likely to be short-lived — of restricting access to prevent the data from falling into the wrong hands. And at present, the biosecurity concerns are "too general and hypothetical", says Nature.

Furthermore, the political sensitivities of deciding who the 'wrong hands' are, and who should make this decision, risk heightening the international tensions that already exist over attempts to limit the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, most recently over Iran's nuclear programme.

But two things are essential if the data are to be made more widely available. First, open publication must be accompanied by an effective monitoring system. This would look out for potential misuse of the data.

Second, the issue needs as wide a public debate as possible, actively promoted by both health officials and journalists to ensure it is adequately informed.

Developing countries such as Indonesia, which has the highest bird flu transmission rates and the most fatalities, have a particular interest in the outcome of this debate. They have more to gain from new techniques to prevent virus transmission, such as effective vaccines, than from restrictions on the publication of these data.

Concerns about biosecurity must be kept in perspective. They are certainly important, but should not cloud our judgement on the urgency of developing adequate protection against an evolved form of the virus, whether natural or man-made.

David Dickson
Editor, SciDev.Net

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ASIA’S 2ND GREEN REVOLUTION, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?

ASIA’S 2^ND GREEN REVOLUTION, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Crispin Maslog from the Philippines has been advocating for a 2^nd Green Revolution for Asia. I wonder what fellow development stakeholders think about this afterthought.

The Green Revolution was waged beginning in the 1960s, with no less than Philippine technocrats and industry players praising the UN-led initiative to high praises. The International Rice Research Institute was founded in Laguna, Philippines in 1964, and the rice science maturation is history.

Couples of decades later, could we ever say that the explosion in agricultural production which the term ‘green revolution’ ever redeem the shirtless folks from hunger? That wave of agricultural explosion immensely damaged the top soil of many developing countries, damage that is almost irreversible at this juncture. There was hardly any discernable association of the ‘green’ in that crop revolution to ecological balance that the term connotes today.

So what’s your take about this 2^nd Green Revolution for the world’s most populous continent?

[Philippines, 15 March 2012]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/opinions/asia-pacific-analysis-launching-a-second-green-revolution-1.html

Asia–Pacific Analysis: Launching a second Green Revolution

Crispin Maslog

23 February 2012

Feeding South-East Asia's rapidly growing population requires a second Green Revolution, says Crispin Maslog.

The Day of Seven Billion was proclaimed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on 31 October 2011 as a historic milestone — the day the world's population reached seven billion people. And the world is on a steep growth curve for the rest of this century.

More than half (3.8 billion) of the population are Asians. Although South-East Asia comprises only 0.6 billion, it is growing fast — by almost 200 per cent between 1950 and 2000 — and is set to grow by another 50 per cent by 2050. [1]

One of the most critical challenges facing a world with a population of seven billion is how to feed the roughly three billion people living below the poverty line in the slums of developing countries.

A 'perfect storm'

Scientists have warned that in the next 50 years, the world will consume twice as much food as it has since the beginning of agriculture 10,000 years ago. [2] This is a startling statistic.

But thinking beyond food security to other crises facing the planet, the prospects look even more daunting. Asian agricultural scientist William D. Dar, director-general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), spoke last month of a coming "perfect storm". [3]

This will be triggered by food shortages resulting from the population explosion, and aggravated by a combination of climate change (leading to warming temperatures and weather extremes including droughts and floods), land degradation, loss of biodiversity and increasing demand for energy.

To meet the challenge of feeding the half-billion or so poor people in South-East Asia and the Pacific, Dar and other agricultural scientists, including International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) director-general Robert Zeigler, have called for a second Green Revolution.

The first Green Revolution, led in Asia by IRRI in the 1960s and 1970s, prevented a predicted famine. Much of its success was due to the technological development of crops, such as semi-dwarf rice variety IR8, also known as the 'miracle rice' that produced 10 times the yield of traditional rice.

But despite its success, the Green Revolution had its share of critics. There were mistakes and side effects. Lessons must be learned if the countries of South-East Asia and the Pacific are to benefit from a second Green Revolution.

A greener revolution

The Green Revolution was criticised for focusing on a few high-yielding varieties that depend on irrigation, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. These practices harmed the environment and affected both agricultural and wild biodiversity.

It also meant that farmers began to rely on just a few crop species. In India, for example, there were about 30,000 rice varieties before the Green Revolution. Today there are around 10 — the most productive types.

Mono-cropping has left the three staple crops of the Green Revolution — rice, maize and wheat — vulnerable to plant diseases that cannot be controlled by agrochemicals. It also led to concerns about the permanent loss of valuable genetic traits bred into traditional varieties over thousands of years.

To avoid repeating these mistakes, a second Green Revolution should include more than the staple crops that fed the world from the 1950s to the 1980s, and embrace dryland farming to grow crops such as sorghum, cassava and beans.

And it should harness South-East Asia's vast upland, rain-fed agricultural areas, not just the irrigated lowlands at the centre of food production decades ago. About 70 per cent of the land area of South-East Asia is rain-fed, and most of its poor people live in these areas.

Harnessing science

Agricultural science and technologies developed over the decades can contribute to the success of a second Green Revolution. The challenge is to increase production using less water, nutrients and land, and with lower environmental impact.

But food security also requires crops that can withstand extreme weather. For example, IRRI has developed a rice variety that can survive two weeks of complete submergence in water, and recently released to farmers in Bangladesh two drought-tolerant rice varieties, BRRI dhan56 and BRRI dhan57. [4]

And ICRISAT has developed and tested innovations in crop, soil and water management that can help farmers better adapt to the impacts of climate change. For example, it has shown that adapting the germplasm of sorghum — the dietary staple of more than 500 million people in rain-fed areas — can help maintain crop yields in warmer temperatures.

Scientific innovations are here to be harnessed to head off the looming 'perfect storm'. What is needed is the political will — from governments, foundations and international agencies — to jump-start a second, greener Green Revolution in the uplands.

Crispin Maslog is a Manila-based consultant for the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication. A former journalist, professor and environmental activist, he worked for the Press Foundation of Asia and the International Rice Research Institute.

References

[1] Hayes, A. C. and Zhao, Z. Population prospects in East and Southeast Asia. (East Asia Forum, 2012)
[2] International Service for the Acquistion of Agri-Biotech Applications. Brief 43-2011: Executive Summary. Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011.
[3] Dar, W. D. Weathering the perfect storm. (Disaster Management Times, 2012).
[4] Dobermann, A. Blueprint for a greener revolution. Rice Today 10, 18–21 (2011)

TRAVAILS OF AFRICAN SCIENCE RESEARCHERS

TRAVAILS OF AFRICAN SCIENCE RESEARCHERS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Bad news for the development stakeholders!

African science researchers are having a hard time sustaining their professional careers. These are not just ordinary run of the mill researchers or those pretenders out there, but PhD degree holders.

The situation calls for greater linkage between universities and end-users in the noblesse continent. In the Asian experience, end users (notably industry users) provide huge endowment funds, research funds and scholarships to universities, such as my country the Philippines has shown so far; in return, end users absorb the top-of-the-line graduates of top universities.

I guess it’s a question of the level of institutionalization of science in any one context that defines the degree of professional security of its career scientists. Africa’s sciences are still in their take-off through growth stages, while those of emerging markets’ are already in their maturity phase.

Let’s hope for the best in the coming maturation of science in Africa. It may take a bit of time, but good examples are already popping up in key urban centers across the continent.

[Philippines, 11 March 2012]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/education/news/african-researchers-struggle-to-establish-careers.html

African researchers 'struggle' to establish careers

Mićo Tatalović

28 February 2012

[LONDON] African universities need to better support early career researchers if they are to build a thriving research environment and boost the continent's overall number of PhD-qualified staff, according to a joint report by the British Academy and the Association of Commonwealth Universities launched yesterday (27 February).

Many African science graduates struggle to establish careers after leaving university as they do not receive enough assistance to define their research agendas and develop professionally, says the report, Foundations for the Future: Supporting the Early Careers of African Researchers.

Instead, post-doctorate graduates working as 'junior lecturers' in African universities are often overloaded with teaching and administrative duties, and have to pursue research and writing academic papers in their spare time.

To counter this, the report urges senior academics to encourage research by younger colleagues and to mentor them on collaborations, publishing and preparing funding applications.

It is essential that science be recognised as an "intergenerational endeavour", the report's author, Jonathan Harle, told SciDev.Net:

"One thing which is absolutely critical is … trying to find ways in which senior academics can be encouraged, enabled and incentivised to nurture [the early career researchers]," he said.

The report builds on the Nairobi Process, a series of actions and initiatives developed to improve UK-Africa research collaborations in the humanities and social sciences, which is being coordinated by the British Academy and the ACU.

Its recommendations are the product of consultations with African and British academics across a wide range of fields, said Graham Furniss, chair of the British Academy's Africa Panel.

"The analysis and the mechanisms proposed are, we think, very relevant to STEM [science, technology, engineering and medicine] subjects and we would welcome further discussion on how the UK could strengthen support across the board to early career scholars," he said.

Marta Tufet, International Activities Adviser at the Wellcome Trust, called for the active involvement of vice chancellors and rectors in the creation of better mentoring programmes in Africa.

She warned that without the support of university leaders to enable researchers to carry out their own work, little progress could be expected.

Kenyan Chege Githiora, from the African Studies Centre at the School of Oriental and African Studies, United Kingdom, welcomed the report but told SciDev.Net that capacity-building of university administrators and librarians is equally important.

"These are the people who actually keep the universities running so if you don't have their support you cannot do your research," Githiora said. "My experience with [African universities] is that a lot of hindrances young African scholars encounter have to do with university administration and governance."

ASIANS TOP USA-EUROPE SCIENCE R&D SPENDING

ASIANS TOP USA-EUROPE SCIENCE R&D SPENDING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Another breakthrough news has struck our perception banks recently, with the gladdening news that Asians as a whole have topped both USA and EU spendings on science research & development.

Ten Asian countries are noted to be leading the way for Asians as a whole in sci-tech R & D, to note: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The time frame used for the research on sci-tech R&D funding was 1999 through 2009.

The brightening news surely correlates well with the conclusion of Western observers that the East had already surpassed the West technologically in the year 2007. It also ties up with another news, coming from Western observers, that science research publications in Asia have risen by many folds over the last ten (10) years.

The news is truly brightening, as the Asian ethos of sharing will see the East disseminating its sci-tech knowledge to shore up the stagnating West in the coming decades. That is in far contrast to the bellicose and hostile attitudes of the West during their imperious occupation of Asian territories and post-war hegemonism.

[Philippines, 06 February 201]]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/finance/news/asian-countries-collectively-top-us-r-d-spend.html

Asian countries collectively top US R&D spend

Mićo Tatalović

19 January 2012 | EN

Overall, Asia now invests in R&D as much as the United States

Ten Asian countries, including some developing countries in South-East Asia, have, as a bloc, caught up with the global leader in research and development (R&D) investment, the United States, according to a US report published this week (17 January).

The total science spend of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam rose steadily between 1999 and 2009 to reach 32 per cent of the global share of spending on science, compared with 31 per cent in the US.

A "major trend has been the rapid expansion of R&D performance in the regions of East/Southeast Asia and South Asia," according to the biennial report 'Science and Engineering Indicators 2012' produced by the National Science Board, the policy-making body of the US National Science Foundation, which drew upon a variety of national and international statistics.

The report also mentions that the share of R&D expenditure spent by US multinationals in Asia-Pacific has increased.

"Asia's rapid ascent as a major world science and technology (S&T) centre is chiefly driven by developments in China," says the report. "But several other Asian economies (the Asia-8 [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand]) have also played a role.

"All are intent on boosting quality of, and access to, higher education and developing world-class research and S&T infrastructures.

"The Asia-8 functions like a loosely structured supplier zone for China's high-technology manufacturing export industries.

"This supplier zone increasingly appears to include Japan. Japan, a preeminent S&T nation, is continuing to lose ground relative to China and the Asia-8 in high-technology manufacturing and trade," the report says.

"India's high gross domestic product (GDP) growth continues to contrast with a fledgling overall S&T performance."

The figures show that China, while still a long way behind the United States, is now the second largest R&D performer globally, contributing 12 per cent of the global research spend. It has overtaken Japan, which contributed 11 per cent in 2009.

The proportion of GDP that China devotes to science funding has doubled since 1999 to 1.7 per cent and China's pace of real growth in R&D expenditure "remains exceptionally high at about 20 per cent annually," the report says.

Overall, world expenditures on R&D are estimated to have exceeded US$1.25 trillion in 2009, up from US$641 billion a decade earlier.

"Governments in many parts of the developing world, viewing science and technology as integral to economic growth and development, have set out to build more knowledge-intensive economies," it says.

"They have taken steps to open their markets to trade and foreign investment, develop their S&T infrastructures, stimulate industrial R&D, expand their higher education systems, and build indigenous R&D capabilities. Over time, global S&T capabilities have grown, nowhere more so than in Asia."

A study, published last year in Scientometrics, said South-East Asian science papers have proliferated in the past decade, suggesting a move towards knowledge-based economies in the region.

Asia's combined production of science and engineering publications is also approaching that of the United States and European Union, and Asia is already a top producer of engineering publications.

"Engineering is vital to knowledge-intensive and technologically advanced economies, and many Asian economies are building their engineering capabilities," the report digest says.

"China publishes 15 per cent of global engineering articles, and Asia as a whole publishes twice as many engineering articles as the United States and half again as many as the EU [European Union]."

Link to full report

TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tunisia is a showcase country in terms of the governance change waged via the Arab Spring. The turbulence that saw the overthrow of the authoritarian regime there surely had some dislocating effects on certain sectors.

Needless to say, the event was so tumultuous as to have put to a near-catastrophic halt the development thrusts of the nation. Gargantuan amounts of monies were siphoned off from the public purse by the corrupt regime’s top leaders, thus disabling the poorer sectors from moving up the ladder.

Also badly affected by the corruption was the science & technology of the country as a whole. It seems that Tunisia has to start all over again as far as S&T is concerned, which rationalizes the attention showed unto this sector by the new government.

Below is a special report on the subject.

[Philippines, 27 November 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/middle-east-and-north-africa/tunisia/news/tunisia-to-boost-its-s-t-with-us-16-5-million-project.html

Tunisia to boost its S&T with US$16.5 million project

Nébil Zaghdoud

2 November 2011 | EN

[TUNIS] The Tunisian government has launched a US$16.5 million project to support the country's scientific research and innovation systems.

The three-year project, funded by the European Union, will aim to improve governance of the country's research and innovation sector, revitalise research and develop new national and international collaborations, according to Abdelaziz Rassaa, minister for industry and technology.

"The Support Project to Research and Innovative System (SPRIS) is an excellent opportunity to boost the National Research and Innovation System in Tunisia, which needs to be efficient to successfully carry out any economic development strategy," said Rassaa at the launch of the project last month (12 October).

By 2016, Tunisia aims to increase its exports of technological products from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by developing industrial sectors, such as electronics, through research and innovation, said the minister.

The steering committee for the project met for the first time last month (12 October) and is still to develop a strategy document and assign funds to individual projects.

Rachid Ghrir, director of research at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research told SciDev.Net that the focus is to "improve the contribution of research and innovation to socioeconomic development and generate new jobs in Tunisia, while strengthening ties between the research and production systems and helping the country integrate into European research programmes".

MohamedMaalej, a member of the National Advisory Council for Scientific and Technological Research, told SciDev.Net: "Although Tunisiahas an integrated systemof scientific research and innovation in terms of legislation and institutions, the economic return of research resultsis still weak, especially in the field of industry".

The country allocates 1.25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development and plans to reach 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2014, but the effect on the economy s of such investment are largely still to be seen, according to Maalej.

Maalej added that "this new project should adopt a cost-effective strategy to ensure the best use of research results, especially in the industrial field" and that it should "make use of international cooperation for supporting national research and industrial projects".

"The implementation of such an ambitious project is the main challenge," said Souheib Oueslati, a biotechnology researcher at the Center of Biotechnology.

Project leaders should ensure they stick to the key targets outlined in the project, "so the scientific research system, the economy, and society as a whole benefit".

The Tunisian National Research and Innovation System is made up of 33 research centers and almost 16,000 researchers, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

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TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

TUNISIA JUMP-STARTS S & T

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tunisia is a showcase country in terms of the governance change waged via the Arab Spring. The turbulence that saw the overthrow of the authoritarian regime there surely had some dislocating effects on certain sectors.

Needless to say, the event was so tumultuous as to have put to a near-catastrophic halt the development thrusts of the nation. Gargantuan amounts of monies were siphoned off from the public purse by the corrupt regime’s top leaders, thus disabling the poorer sectors from moving up the ladder.

Also badly affected by the corruption was the science & technology of the country as a whole. It seems that Tunisia has to start all over again as far as S&T is concerned, which rationalizes the attention showed unto this sector by the new government.

Below is a special report on the subject.

[Philippines, 27 November 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/middle-east-and-north-africa/tunisia/news/tunisia-to-boost-its-s-t-with-us-16-5-million-project.html

Tunisia to boost its S&T with US$16.5 million project

Nébil Zaghdoud

2 November 2011 | EN

[TUNIS] The Tunisian government has launched a US$16.5 million project to support the country's scientific research and innovation systems.

The three-year project, funded by the European Union, will aim to improve governance of the country's research and innovation sector, revitalise research and develop new national and international collaborations, according to Abdelaziz Rassaa, minister for industry and technology.

"The Support Project to Research and Innovative System (SPRIS) is an excellent opportunity to boost the National Research and Innovation System in Tunisia, which needs to be efficient to successfully carry out any economic development strategy," said Rassaa at the launch of the project last month (12 October).

By 2016, Tunisia aims to increase its exports of technological products from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by developing industrial sectors, such as electronics, through research and innovation, said the minister.

The steering committee for the project met for the first time last month (12 October) and is still to develop a strategy document and assign funds to individual projects.

Rachid Ghrir, director of research at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research told SciDev.Net that the focus is to "improve the contribution of research and innovation to socioeconomic development and generate new jobs in Tunisia, while strengthening ties between the research and production systems and helping the country integrate into European research programmes".

MohamedMaalej, a member of the National Advisory Council for Scientific and Technological Research, told SciDev.Net: "Although Tunisiahas an integrated systemof scientific research and innovation in terms of legislation and institutions, the economic return of research resultsis still weak, especially in the field of industry".

The country allocates 1.25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development and plans to reach 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2014, but the effect on the economy s of such investment are largely still to be seen, according to Maalej.

Maalej added that "this new project should adopt a cost-effective strategy to ensure the best use of research results, especially in the industrial field" and that it should "make use of international cooperation for supporting national research and industrial projects".

"The implementation of such an ambitious project is the main challenge," said Souheib Oueslati, a biotechnology researcher at the Center of Biotechnology.

Project leaders should ensure they stick to the key targets outlined in the project, "so the scientific research system, the economy, and society as a whole benefit".

The Tunisian National Research and Innovation System is made up of 33 research centers and almost 16,000 researchers, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

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PEACE & DEVELOPMENT LINKS:

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FUND HIV RESEARCH FIRST!

FUND HIV RESEARCH FIRST!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Smug! Arrogant! Sadistic! One may quip at the title which makes HIV funding as mandatory.

Let’s all face it, fellow global citizens: HIV is tearing down populations, and the reversal towards an HIV-free environment just isn’t around the corner yet. The contingency of the moment HIV-wise is to make HIV research as tops in terms of funding.

“Cease not the lab researches till the vaccine for the ailment be found, disseminated and effectively curb the ailment!” would be Ceasar-like directive aimed at shoring up resources for the dreaded disease. Maybe we need such directives sometimes in order to get things moving fast and get over with the pandemic.

Below is a reportage from the scidev.net regarding the subject.

[Philippines, 22 October 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/health/hiv-aids/news/vaccine-research-is-top-hiv-aids-funding-priority-.html

Vaccine research 'is top HIV/AIDS funding priority'

Source: Nature

6 October 2011

Vaccine research and development should be the top funding priority for HIV/AIDS, if global organisations are able to raise US$10 billion over the next five years, according to a panel that included Nobel laureate economists.

A US$100 million per year boost to vaccine research funding — relatively modest, the panel said, and about ten per cent above current levels — could speed up vaccine development, a meeting heard in Washington DC, United States, last week (28 September).

"Even though the vaccine is elusive and we do not have it yet, it's clear that this research has led to an understanding that has enormously improved our ability to fight this disease," said Nobel economist Vernon Smith, of Chapman University, California, United States.

The panel was convened by the RethinkHIV project — funded by the Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC) — which aims to help policymakers and donors find the most cost-effective ways to tackle the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It commissioned researchers looking at the economics, epidemiology and demography of AIDS to identify a series of cost-effective interventions and then asked the panel of economists, which included three Nobel laureates, to review the researchers' findings and rank them in order of priority.

At last week's meeting, the panel presented its findings to advocacy groups including the Global HIV/AIDS Program of the World Bank, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the US Department of State and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and an international economic advisor, who was not involved with the project, is skeptical of the validity of the Copenhagen Consensus process.

"This … process of evaluation has been misguided and inaccurate from the start on just about every issue. This kind of question, US$2 billion over a year over 5 years, posed in an artificial way to a group of people who may be Nobel laureates but who have no expertise on these issues, has just come up with one misleading issue after the other," said Sachs.

But Bjorn Lomborg, director of the CCC, said some of the world's top economists had showed that there were a lot of "amazing opportunities" to help people have better lives. "HIV/AIDS is not a done crisis," he said.

Link to full article in Nature News Blog

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BE GENDER SENSITIVE IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH!

BE GENDER SENSITIVE IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Gender sensitivity in research has been a long standing practice in the social sciences. This isn’t the case though for the biomedical sciences, most specially with respect to observing sex differences in pharmaceutical drugs.

The inclusion of gender factor into research protocols have been quite a current in the biomedical fields though seemingly slow in response to the challenges. The University of the Philippines - Manila and the Department of Health have been spearheading the advocacy for such new protocols since the late 80s yet, an advocacy that came simultaneously with those for traditional and alternative medicine.

The awareness for such sex-factored protocols have reached global scale to date. Let’s just hope there would be quicker resolutions about the matter, and see diagnostics and medications modified accordingly.

A summary discussion on the subject is shown below.

[Philippines, 21 September 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/biomed-analysis-target-sex-differences-in-research-1.html

Biomed Analysis: Target sex differences in research

Priya Shetty

18 August 2011

Diseases, and drugs used to treat them, behave differently in men and women. Drug development needs to account for this, says Priya Shetty.

That men and women are biologically distinct is obvious, but this is not limited to physical or hormonal differences. Sex is strongly linked both to how diseases manifest themselves — their symptoms and severity, for instance — and to how drugs interact with the body.

Sex differences clearly have implications for biomedical research, especially drug development. Over the past 10–15 years, major research funding institutions such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have encouraged inclusion of these factors into research protocols, and more journals such as the Journal of the American Association of Cardiology are now asking authors to incorporate sex differences into their analysis.

But last December, a cross-disciplinary review [1] of scientific research papers showed that while some progress had been made, the pace has been sluggish, especially in translating the findings from clinical research to practice.

And the need to account for sex differences in research has growing relevance for developing countries, where an increasing number of clinical trials are taking place.

This month, geneticists discovered striking sex-linked metabolic differences between men and women [2], which could affect disease onset and progression. A person's metabolic profile informs gene expression patterns, which in turn affect chronic diseases that are rising rapidly in poor countries.

Women's woes

Women tend to be worst affected by research that doesn't distinguish between the sexes. Through incorrect dosing they have suffered serious side-effects more often than men both during clinical trials and when treated with approved drugs.

Dosing tends to be adjusted by body weight. But the percentage of fat in the body, which is naturally higher for women, also affects how it processes a drug. This is not taken into account in deciding standard doses, or in the information provided on product labels, so women can fare worse after treatment.

Understanding such differences is vital. For instance, in the 1990s, data showed that women under 55 years of age were twice as likely to die after a heart attack than men in the same age group; now, mortality is only slightly higher in women than in men.

This drop in women's mortality stemmed in part from doctors' growing awareness that they might not have the same response to drugs like statins. They realised that heart disease can manifest differently in men and women — they may have different risk profiles, symptoms, or treatment needs on admission to hospital.

The roots of this biomedical bias against women seem to start in basic research, the precursor of clinical trials. This type of research has usually used male animals, to avoid the complexities of the hormonal and reproductive systems of female animals, which would require larger sample sizes to achieve a comparable result.

Challenges in action

Research-funding agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the NIH have guidelines to ensure that researchers guard against this bias, and indeed actively try and redress it with targeted research.

But this is hardly an area of focus for biomedical researchers in the developing world, and WHO guidelines tend to focus on different gender issues (such as making trials culturally appropriate for women).

And even where guidelines exist, there are challenges in implementing them. For one thing, since the terms 'sex' (which is a biological definition) and 'gender' (social) are often incorrectly used interchangeably, many journals and institutions still think of this as a social science issue, particularly since the current focus on the issue stems from women's rights movements.

Few funders devote any cash to the hard science of underlying biological mechanisms that might explain why men and women respond differently to drugs.

And accounting for sex-specific differences in research protocols, and running the subsequent data through finely-grained analyses that are stratified according to sex, will inevitably lengthen a research project. This can use up precious resources and delay the sharing of potentially useful results.

Focus on women's health

It is now well established that major diseases such as diabetes, stroke, and several cancers, as well as Alzheimer's disease, depression and other mental illness, differ in how they manifest, and how they should be treated, in women.

All these diseases are now a significant strain on the health systems of developing countries, and public health scientists expect that this will only get worse in coming years. As countries and donors allocate resources to meet the challenge, they should note that research into chronic diseases will be incomplete if it ignores sex differences.

Personalised medicine, which promises to tailor treatment to people according to their genetic risk profiles and environmental factors, will also need to incorporate biological sex differences.

But the goal is not to provide nuanced disease diagnosis and management for the sake of it — treatment can always be improved, after all. It is to ensure that women's health is taken seriously.

Researchers must not shortcut around the issues of biological sex differences. Focusing only on implementing health programmes that suit women culturally is not enough. Medical research shouldn't keep pushing forward without addressing this fundamental flaw.

Journalist Priya Shetty specialises in developing world issues including health, climate change and human rights. She writes a blog, Science Safari, on these issues. She has worked as an editor at New Scientist, The Lancet and SciDev.Net.

References

[1] Oertelt-Prigione et al. Analysis of sex and gender-specific research reveals a common increase in publications and marked differences between disciplines. BMC Medicine doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-70 (2010)

[2] Mittelstrass K, et al. Discovery of sexual dimorphisms in metabolic and genetic biomarkers. PLoS Genetics doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002215 (2011)

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ISLAM ANAYSIS ON SCIENCE

ISLAM ANAYSIS ON SCIENCE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

“Give science a social contract,” succinctly contends Islam as an analytical frame for science.

The contention stresses, among other things, the full import of science benefiting sectors of society and/or the population. I could hardly disagree with such an analytical frame, which finds parallelism in the ‘Asian way’ to understanding science.

A science must generate technologies—the ‘know how’—which can then be disseminated to end-users. In the developing world, end-users refer particularly to the middle and marginal sectors, thus rendering science & technology as performing a ‘social responsibility’.

Any science program that fails to generate technologies should be scrapped in case they are proposed in a university or think-tank. In my own field, the social sciences, I hold the position that any new social science program or even subject must be able to generate ‘social technologies’ or ‘best practices’ to be meaningful at all.

Below is the update discourse on Islam analysis of science.

[Philippines, 18 September 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/science-in-the-islamic-world/opinions/islam-analysis-give-science-a-social-contract-1.html

Islam Analysis: Give science a social contract

Athar Osama

11 August 2011

Ambitious plans for a 'desert development corridor' in Egypt could provide a concrete example of the social value of science, says Athar Osama.

Last month, the journal Science published a supplement called 'Revolutionizing Egypt's Science' that hailed the prospects for Egyptian science after the 25 January revolution. Its optimism reflected a spate of initiatives and increased science budgets announced by the new government to demonstrate its commitment to science and innovation.

But some have rightly warned against reading too much into recent announcements, saying there are still significant obstacles to lifting the scientific profession from its low point during the pre-revolution regime to a place where it can play a constructive role in socio-economic development.

Egypt's leaders and scientists, like those in much of the rest of the Islamic world, need to work with both intellectuals and ordinary citizens to achieve a vast cultural change before science can really be expected to deliver the goods. Progress for Egyptian science must come by putting people first, rather than high-profile 'bricks and mortar' mega-projects.

Highway to prosperity

One example of how this might be achieved is a proposal for a massive 'desert development corridor', which is the brainchild of Boston University geologist Farouk El-Baz, who has been using satellite imagery to study Egypt's deserts for decades.

Initially conceived in the early 1980s, when El-Baz served as president Anwar Sadat's science advisor, the project was shelved for two decades after Sadat's death. But interest was reignited in the mid-2000s and has escalated since.

This US$24–billion initiative — even larger than the US$2-billion 'science city' proposed by Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail — would use scientific knowledge of satellite imagery, desert geology and hydrology to provide socio-economic benefits to society.

It seeks to build a major superhighway to the west of the Nile from the country's north to the south, with arteries connecting it with towns in the east and west. The corridor will also provide a freshwater pipeline and an electricity line to support these areas during the development and afterwards.

According to El-Baz, the corridor "would bring much-needed relief to overpopulated Egyptian cities and reduce urban encroachment of agricultural land, enhance the habitable land mass, improve continental trade linkages from the Mediterranean in the north all the way to South Africa, and create, literally, a 'breathing space' for Egyptian society that is so critical to creativity".

A key aspect of the idea is the creation of a special funding vehicle — essentially, a bond open to the public — that would allow Egyptian people to invest in the initiative. They would become its 'owners' and so, according to El-Baz, control their own destiny.

A social contract

The initiative is most unusual in the Islamic world in making an explicit link between a scientist's idea and its direct beneficiaries.

It could also address a serious weakness in the science policy discourse within the Islamic world.

One of the most fundamental reasons for the lack of science-based development in the Islamic world is the absence of a 'social contract' between scientists and citizens. Under a social contract, citizens pay their taxes to fund scientists in the expectation that they will benefit from the knowledge created and the subsequent socio-economic improvement.

The absence of any such social contract in Islamic countries is exacerbated by the fact that science is not seen as having contributed much towards socio-economic development.

With some notable exceptions — such as agricultural research, development and extension in Egypt and Pakistan during the 1960s and 1970s — much of the science carried out in laboratories across the Islamic world is limited in its scope for commercial application. It is often theoretical, rather than practical, and is sometimes not of sufficient quality to solve real-life problems.

Making science relevant

Furthermore, the entrepreneurial infrastructure needed to commercialise the benefits of scientific research is extremely underdeveloped in the Islamic world. In the absence of strong private sector participation, innovation often ends up as an unwanted baby, with nobody prepared to pay the bills or take responsibility for it.

The crucial link between science and its impact is therefore broken and society suffers as a result. This limits the possibilities, popular enthusiasm and political support for science in the Islamic world.

Two things must happen if science is to win the popular and political support it needs to develop some form of a social contract — a task for which the scientific community must share responsibility.

First, scientists and science policymakers must make science more relevant to their respective societies. Scientists have an important role to play in this; they must come down from their ivory towers and use science to address the urgent needs of their societies.

Without a visible link between investment in science and its returns to the society that funds it, a social contract will be hard to achieve, and science will continue to be seen as a burdensome tax on the present, rather than an investment in the future.

Role of communication

Second, scientists and science policymakers must communicate science more effectively. This is a global challenge but is particularly acute in the Islamic world.

El-Baz learned this the hard way when he started exploring the Egyptian deserts. "We had to tell desert nomads what we were doing, and initially it was hard to do, but we gradually became better at it," he says.

Science journalists can play an important role here. But the much-needed enthusiasm for using science for public benefit must come from scientists themselves.

The growing grass-roots political support for Egypt's Desert Development Corridor is the kind of movement that can help establish a genuine social contract for science. In doing so, it will help put the Islamic world on course towards embracing a culture of science-based development.

[Athar Osama is a London-based science and innovation policy researcher and consultant, and director of Middle East and Asia for a technology policy consulting firm. He is the founder of Muslim-Science.com.]

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