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NIH, WHO, and World Bank Launch Disease Control Priorities Project

Officials at the Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank announced in September plans for an initiative called the Disease Control Priorities Project (DCPP), a three-year effort to assess disease control priorities and to produce analyses and resource materials for officials who formulate health policies in developing countries.

The new project "will collaborate with partners around the world to generate information for national and international policymakers as they determine their health strategies and investments," says FIC Director Gerald Keusch. "The DCPP's work will lead to highly effective, affordable health solutions that can be emulated in countries around the world," adds Sally Stansfield, who is acting director of the infectious disease and vaccines program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is providing $3.5 million to support the new project.

DCPP plans to provide health policymakers in developing countries with analyses of the cost of disease burden and the cost of available treatments and preventions. Various demographic, epidemiologic, and economic information produced by DCPP will be made available through a series of products and events. Plans call for locating the DCPP secretariat at FIC on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. An international advisory committee will be guiding the project, and an eight-member board will oversee day-to-day operations.

Jeffrey L. Fox