You might ask, what is going on between India and the United States that requires such close collaboration? The answer, to put it very succinctly, is a lot. Most of it is done privately, and Sankara Nethralaya is a perfect example of that. But as a government representative, I’ll talk mainly about what the U.S. Government is doing in the area of public health cooperation. Over the past few decades India and the United States have worked together in the areas of leprosy, malaria, polio, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and childhood and oral cancers. This collaboration is in the form of technical support and capacity building not only with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, but also with the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Agriculture.

The American Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development provide close to $100 million in health-related assistance to India every year.  We have a number of bilateral agreements, and nearly 250 Indian scientists are currently involved in short-term or long-term training in the United States.

U.S. Health Secretary Leavitt is here now because we want to find ways to further increase our cooperation. His first stop was the Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine in Tambaram. That hospital treats more than 30,000 people each year who are living with HIV. They come from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other states. The American Center for Disease Control, based in Atlanta and which I’m sure you all know, provides technical support to the hospital in three areas:  (1) strengthening the quality of laboratory services, (2) transforming patient data management to make it computer-based rather than paper-based, and (3) making the hospital into a national model for providing high-quality and comprehensive care and treatment for HIV patients. Secretary Leavitt interacted with doctors and patients, including children. He also spoke to the many dedicated Indian scientists and public health specialists working so successfully at that hospital.

Also on Monday, Secretary Leavitt visited Loyola College’s Red Ribbon Club. You are probably asking:  what is a Red Ribbon Club? It is a model program to teach students how to avoid becoming HIV positive. Currently more than 800 colleges in Tamil Nadu have Red Ribbon Clubs reaching more than 100,000 students. There is a potential to reach more than 750,000 college students in the state. Prevention is of course of paramount importance in defeating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Red Ribbon Club students at Loyola College acted out a skit they themselves wrote to educate their peers about HIV/AIDS prevention, showing how the abuse of drugs and alcohol often lead to unsafe sex. Secretary Leavitt formally released a new curriculum called “Celebrating Life.” His message to the students on the curriculum was: “Don’t just read it, heed it.”

In Hyderabad Secretary Leavitt visited Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Bharat Biotech International. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories produce generic pharmaceuticals for export to the United States. Secretary Leavitt was able during the visit to observe first-hand the safety and quality control measures that Dr. Reddy has put in place. Bharat Biotech is collaborating with the U.S. Center for Disease Control on a very exciting public-private initiative to develop a rotavirus vaccine. The project has the potential to prevent the death of hundreds of thousands of infants in India and around the world. 

Secretary Leavitt made the point that the safety of food and drug imports is a more critical issue today than ever before. The United States imports more than $2 trillion-worth of products from overseas. It is essential that we ensure the quality and safety of those products. Those who produce unsafe or poor quality goods will be punished by the market, and that punishment will be swift and harsh. So the U.S. and India should work together to protect our peoples and our brands – Brand India and Brand America. Once your brand is tarnished, it is hard to win back customers. With respect to food and drug imports, it is not only a health issue and social issue, it is also an economic issue.

Indo-U.S. cooperation in health has gone on for at least the last 35 years, and it is increasing all the time. The National Institutes of Health in the United States has provided funding for over 180 research projects in India. That is a marked increase over time, from zero in 1990 to 17 in 1998 and 67 in 2003.  These research grants are contributing to the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and rotavirus.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is one of the largest supporters of polio eradication in India. Before the implementation of polio vaccination campaigns in India, there were an estimated 30,000 annual cases of paralytic polio. With the successful implementation of the Polio Eradication Initiative, or PEI, the number of cases decreased to a historic low of 265 in the year 2000. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak in 2002 but the number for 2007 is around 500 polio cases. One of our main weapons in the fight is to intensify efforts to deliver the vaccine to the 165 million children under 5 years old. We are committed to staying the course and providing the best qualified polio experts in the world until polio is entirely eliminated from India.

I am not going to stand here and give you a comprehensive list of all of our cooperative programs. That would take more time then we’ve got. I just wanted to mention a few programs by way of illustration. Interesting to this audience, one of the areas where India and the United States work together is ocular diseases, including the prevention of blindness. The main point of this, and of Secretary Leavitt’s visit to India, is that controlling disease and improving people’s health is a global project. It is not a matter of acting only in this country or that. We have to look at the world as a whole because, as we know, disease is no respecter of national boundaries. PXE is an obvious example, showing that disease has no nationality and carries no passport. It goes wherever it wants.

India and the United States are natural partners. This conference certainly exemplifies this, where we see Indian and American clinicians and scientists working together on PXE and in nanomedicine. And it’s especially wonderful to see people with PXE, like Dr. Benham and her colleagues, who have dedicated their lives to helping others with the same condition. I tend to believe, though I have no supporting evidence, that such generosity has therapeutic value and results in longer, better and happier lives for those who practice it. On behalf of my government, I would like to congratulate you on the work you are doing.

India and the United States are both great countries, but together we are even greater. Although the extent of our cooperation in public health, medicine and many other fields is vast, in reality we have barely scratched the surface as to what is possible. There is much more to do, and those working on PXE are on the cutting edge.