What can we do? Plenty.

Humankind has never been better equipped than we are today to take on the challenge of infectious disease. We have the knowledge, the expertise, and the tools. Indeed, we stand at a unique moment in history, when a concerted effort could eradicate several of the world’s deadliest killers and dramatically reduce the toll of many others.

The Unique Opportunity of Pharmaceutical Science

Some of the most powerful weapons we possess are effective drugs. The first antibiotics, developed during World War II, were called wonder drugs for good reason. Among the first genuinely effective medications, they changed history by subduing many deadly infections. The modern age of vaccines heralded a fundamental shift in our approach to disease: we now have technologies that rather than cure an infection, actually teach the human immune system how to prevent the infection in the first place.

Our remarkable new powers are demonstrated by how quickly we can respond to wholly new disease threats. Thanks to the tools of biotechnology, microbiologists identified the cause of AIDS with astonishing speed. By deciphering its mechanisms, scientists were able to rapidly develop a host of effective anti-viral drugs. The world’s response to SARS has been even swifter. Within months of the first outbreak, the pathogenic organism was identified. Before a year had passed, drugs and vaccines were undergoing testing.

With a determined effort, we could lessen the toll of many of the diseases that plague the poorest among us. There is nothing unusual about these afflictions except that they have been allowed to flourish. Almost all of them are curable. Some may be prevented entirely. In some cases, effective drugs have already been developed but remain unused. In others, promising compounds have been identified but sit on the shelf. Even where little research has been done, we have the expertise to make giant strides in a relatively short time—if only we set our mind to do it.

Now Is the Time to Act

The chance to save even a fraction of the lives in jeopardy is reason enough to do everything we can.

But there are other reasons to act now. If we wait, more than just lives will be lost. Unique windows of opportunity could also vanish. The rise of drug-resistant organisms has taught us that medications don’t remain effective forever. In some cases, drugs begin to lose their power to resistant germs within as little as a decade. The sooner we use our best weapons to best advantage, the better chance we have of eliminating or eradicating disease agents. Had anti-tuberculosis medications been used more widely and wisely, for instance, we might not be facing the global threat of drug-resistant TB today.

There’s another reason for urgency. Disease threats are constantly changing. Over the past 20 years, more than 30 new human illnesses have emerged. Each could tip the balance of power in our war against infectious disease. The eradication of smallpox occurred during a unique window of opportunity that, we’ve only come to realize now, was about to shut. Even as the last cases of smallpox were being tracked down and treated, HIV/AIDS was beginning to spread. We now know that immunization with smallpox vaccine can be fatal to people who carry the HIV virus. As David Heymann, executive director for communicable diseases for the WHO has pointed out, “Just a few years delay and global eradication of smallpox might have become impossible….”

Luckily, the world didn’t wait. An unprecedented international effort eliminated the virus. That campaign, at a cost at the time of only $300 million, goes on giving the gift of life to more than a million people a year who otherwise would have died of smallpox.

Such is the unique power of public health initiatives. Because its efforts are multiplied across populations, the benefit of even the smallest advance can be multiplied millions of times over. The world’s very first vaccine led to eradication of an ancient plague — smallpox — from every corner of the globe. That triumph may soon be repeated as the campaign to eradicate polio nears its goal. Several other deadly or disabling diseases are being targeted for elimination.

If we act now, millions more lives can be spared. Vast suffering can be prevented. Drug treatments, vaccines, and campaigns to make them available not only cure people or prevent disease, but can rescue entire communities, opening the way at last for economic and social development. When a family is spared the debilitating cycle of sickness caused by chronic malaria or a death from HIV/AIDS or sleeping sickness, they can begin to build a better life for themselves.

We have the means to do it. And increasingly we have the will.

A New Spirit of Collaboration

The field of public health today is marked by a renewed sense of optimism and determination. The past several years have seen the creation of unprecedented coalitions of individuals and institutions devoted to global health. Nonprofit organizations, large philanthropic foundations, pharmaceutical companies, public-private partnerships (PPPs), governmental health agencies, and volunteer charities, among others, are working to bring the benefits of an ongoing revolution in medical science to the people who most need them. Organizations such as the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF have been joined by many other innovative groups, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carter Center, Rotary International, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Institute for OneWorld Health.

Together these groups are creating what some public health experts say is a “tipping point,” a profound shift from doubt to conviction, discouragement to renewed hope—convincing more and more people that an investment in the world’s health can have powerful and lasting returns.

One World, One Goal

Part of the new commitment comes from the growing recognition that we are all connected on this small planet we share. Diseases know no borders. A virus or bacterium arising in one corner of the world can rapidly spread around the globe, as we’ve seen again and again, from tourists with SARS to soldiers returning from Iraq with leishmaniasis infections.

But the new determination is also powered by a selfless pursuit: the knowledge that even modest efforts can make a vast difference in the lives of people most in need. The development of just one new drug against a disease like malaria, diarrhea or Chagas disease can spare millions of people suffering and death.

The pharmaceutical industry and the thousands of researchers who are part of it are positioned to play a crucial role in the new global campaign against infectious diseases. Some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have begun to contribute drugs, in some cases free of charge, to help wipe out diseases that plague the developing world. Meanwhile, individual pharmaceutical scientists, deeply concerned about health inequities and frustrated by an inability to directly contribute, are discovering innovative ways that they can contribute their own time and unique expertise—joining a growing movement of scientists committed to global public health.

Every human life matters. That is the simple and compelling goal of global public health. Today, in large and small ways, with contributions of time, money, and expertise, a growing community of people from all walks of life––from grassroots volunteers to government health ministers, from barefoot doctors in rural clinics to pharmaceutical scientists in state-of-the-art research facilities—are working to make that a reality.