Former HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson Assumes New Role as Global Ambassador of the Global Network

Thompson’s Work Responds to Urgency Highlighted by G8 leaders – Declares Medical Diplomacy Critical to Defeating Terrorism and Eliminating NTDs New Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announced.

Published on 7.16.08

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 16, 2008)

At a National Press Club Newsmaker event today in Washington, D.C., former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced that he will be the new Global Ambassador of The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and will be heading to Rwanda in August as part of his medical diplomacy mission.

Secretary Thompson stressed the critical importance of promoting medical diplomacy as part of our foreign and defense policy: “Through medical diplomacy, we can win the hearts and minds of people in less fortunate areas of the world by exporting medical care, expertise and personnel to those who need it most. America has the best chance to beat the war on terror and defeat the terrorists by enhancing our medical and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable countries. They say good fences make good neighbors, and maybe they do. But what I’ve learned is that good medicines make good neighbors, and it makes good foreign policy too.”

Thompson also announced that the Global Network has been awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. On the heels of the G-8 leaders’ commitment to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), this $3.8 million grant will be used to raise awareness of these diseases and advocate for increased funding.

NTDs are a group of parasitic and bacterial infections that impact one billion of the world’s poorest citizens—those who live on less than $2 a day. NTDs produce severe poverty in afflicted areas. Just one disease—chronic hookworm infection in childhood— reduces future wage earnings by an extraordinary 43%. NTDs account for approximately 30% of global disease burden due to infectious and parasitic diseases, yet they can be controlled or eliminated using a “rapid impact package” of drugs for approximately 50 cents per person per year—one of the “best buys” in public health.

“While running for the Republican presidential nomination, I met with many Americans who were passionately concerned about America’s standing in the world and the precarious state of global health,” Thompson said. “It is a tragedy that the world’s poorest citizens are suffering from diseases that have been neglected for too long, particularly when we can treat many of them for less than 50 cents a year. As the Global Network’s new Global Ambassador, I am committed to ending the neglect and the vicious cycle of poverty that these diseases produce. When we help others, we also help ourselves.” Through strategic collaboration and accelerated access to inexpensive and effective interventions, the Global Network aims to improve childhood development, school attendance and performance, pregnancy outcomes and worker productivity. The new Gates Foundation grant will allow the Global Network to expand upon its international and domestic advocacy efforts through improved public awareness, grassroots outreach and policy development. Ultimately, these efforts will lead to the creation of a sustainable funding mechanism for neglected tropical disease control.

“This gracious grant from the Gates Foundation, coupled with the call to action at last week’s G-8 meeting, will help the Global Network ensure that children and families with these terrible, but treatable diseases get the attention and resources they need,” said Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P., Executive Director of the Global Network and President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. “And the more than one billion people suffering with NTDs could have no stronger advocate than Secretary Thompson. His passion and commitment will be a driving force in our efforts to eliminate these diseases.”

Read the press release.