We can win the war against infectious disease with data

By Safiye Kucukkaraca, Acting Head of THINK & Director of Strategic Partnerships at FII Institute

Health has become the world’s top priority. From the pandemic’s start to today’s Omicron variant, COVID-19’s impact on our planet has been unprecedented, with millions dying from catastrophic social and economic devastation.

Healthcare is one of the four main priorities of the FII Institute, a new global nonprofit foundation with an investment arm and one agenda: Impact on Humanity. For this reason, we linked our healthcare strategy to Sustainable Development Goal 3: "To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages." In this connection, our first paper called for the world to invest in tackling tuberculosis. TB is a disease that kills one person every 22 seconds. According to the Global TB Vaccine Partnership leadership group, it will cost the world over $16 trillion by 2050 if it is not eradicated.

However, releasing a paper is not enough. In our research, we noticed that one of the reasons infectious diseases spread so fast was the lack of data. We decided to develop a tool that captures endemic and epidemic diseases in near real-time. Our tool assesses the readiness and vulnerability of national healthcare systems. In this way, the data will inform policymakers worldwide about the gaps that need to be filled in to tackle endemic and emerging epidemic diseases.

Working with partners Metabiota and Accenture, we developed the Global Infectious Disease Index. The Index showcases the dual impact of the endemic disease burden and epidemic disease threats across 204 countries and territories. The endemic component displays the burden from five local endemic diseases—HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, lower respiratory infections, and diarrheal diseases.

The Index tracks up to sixty pathogens, posing a potential global threat. It provides an objective, quantitative and comparable measure of infectious diseases, thereby enhancing the situational awareness to effectively prepare for, respond to and mitigate global health threats.

A Tale of Two Countries

Denmark is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. Malawi is one of the world’s poorest.

In Denmark, lower respiratory diseases, such as influenza and pneumonia, rank high among the diseases measured by the Index, claiming the lives of 2,000 Danes in 2018, according to the World Health Organization. Out of a population of 5.8 million, this number is relatively low. Denmark is well-equipped to stop the spread of infectious diseases. The number of medical and support staff is 14.3 per 1,000 people, and every Dane has access to clean water and basic sanitation, and 97% have basic immunization.

In stark contrast, Malawi is overwrought by infectious diseases. Take malaria, for example. Malawi had seven million malaria cases last year—more than a third of the population—and 2,500 lost their lives to the mosquito-borne disease. The Index clearly shows why: 70% of Malawians have basic access to water, and a mere 27% of Malawians have basic access to sanitation. These key data points indicate a country ripe for spreading infectious diseases.

Finally, as something unique to our platform, we have included the following six rankings: (1) number of medical staff, (2) number of hospital beds, (3) health expenditure, (4) population with basic immunization, (5) population with basic access to clean water, and (6) population with basic access to sanitation. These criteria help us better understand the gaps in each country's readiness to prepare for and win the fight against infectious diseases.

We invite you to explore the Global Infectious Disease Index and learn how data will help us win the war against infectious disease in our time. Together we can build a better world that benefits every man, woman, and child, regardless of the country in which they live.