The Magic Pill and the Big Picture

I attended an excellent, thought provoking and humbling discussion in Edinburgh late last week - "Africa's Health: Is There a Magic Pill". This was part of the African Conversations Series organised by Edinburgh City Council in advance of the G8. The panel included health professionals and aid workers with field experience, a representative from Pfizer, and was chaired by a broadcaster. The audience seemed broadly based, and included young people from Rwanda in Edinburgh to perform at other events.

While degrees of approach differed, the common theme was that while there is a crucial role for research, to develop "magic pills" (comparison was made with the present rarity of Yellow Fever, as opposed to HIV); and while it was important to make such pills widely available at low or no charge, this was only part of the picture. Education, means of female empowerment, awareness, infrastructure, corruption and endemic poverty must be addressed, by working in conjunction with, and respecting, communities.

A persuasive plea was also made for the role of local radio, and mobile phones, in raising awareness of issues and enabling help to be called when needed, particularly given often high levels of illiteracy.

The evening was a helpful reminder at two levels: that our legal research does not and should not exist in a vaccuum of different legal rights; but that there is a role for legal solutions to provide tools for necessary work in health and communications.