From Donald Scott
Debora MacKenzie advises that “it is not a good idea to be sick in a poor country”, and this is undoubtedly true (28 February, p 22). However, the majority of illness in developing countries has nothing to do with a lack of pharmaceutical availability; medicines don’t make a population healthy. The countries that support UNITAID are lobbied continuously by pharmaceutical companies to ensure they don’t lose their developing markets.
If those countries want to encourage healthy populations, why don’t they allocate more of their budgets for clean water, sanitation, healthy food and the other essentials of life?
Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, UK
