Scattered in amongst the news in the tidbits of upcoming budget is a strong rumour that the Australian Federal Government is poised to cut funding to medical research. For around a month now, scientists and researchers have taken to facebook and Twitter to voice their concern of a $400 million cut to a $700 million dollar budget of the National Health and Medical Research Council, (NHMRC). Chances are you have probably never heard of them and why should you care? I didn’t hear of them until two years ago and that was only because I happened to meet a young researcher working at a ridiculous hour on a research grant application from the NHMRC.
The precursor to the NHMRC, the Federal Health Council was established in 1926 after a severe influenza pandemic in 1918-1919. The World Health Organisation estimates that between 40 to 50 million deaths occurred worldwide during the pandemic. The estimate is especially staggering given the short time frame. The world witnessed and experienced a tragedy that could only be solved by different fields of science working together in research. The importance of medical research was not only recognised but there was now a tangible reason for it, to prevent the deaths of loved ones. The cemeteries were filled with the dead.
In 2011, Australia has been extremely lucky when it comes to disease outbreaks. There really aren’t that many. We have the yearly “Get Your Flu Shot” campaign and the occasional mention of the bird or swine flu. We are the lucky country. It’s easy to assume that medical research is healthy and well looked after. One quick look around and the streets are not filled with the sick and dying. Perhaps then, we don’t need medical research and the scientists worried about the $400 million cut to their budget are just looking after their jobs. What has medical research ever done for us anyway?
Well, there are antibiotics, the result of microbiological research. An Australian researcher, Sir Howard Florey discovered penicillin in 1939. This one single breakthrough is estimated to have saved more than 200 million lives. This discovery was recognised by the pinnacle of science awards, the Nobel Prize.
So that was a while ago. What about recently? Well, there’s the story of quirky Western Australian medical researchers, Professor Barry Marshall and Professor Robin Warren where one of them downed a batch of helicobacter pylori bacterium to show that it is the cause of most stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. Until this work was done, it was thought that stress and spicy foods were the cause of stomach ulcers. The treatment plan that now involves a round of antibiotics. This duo was also awarded with the Nobel Prize.
Have you ever bought a red nose for Red Nose Day on the last Friday of June to support research into sudden infant death syndrome, (SIDS)? This research really hit the headlines when Dr Susan Beal and Professor Dwyer demonstrated a link between a baby’s sleeping position and SIDS. Parents are now armed with information how to place a baby down to sleep to reduce the risk of coming back to the cot to find their baby dead without warning. All the answers have not yet been found and the risk is still very real especially with the discovery that some babies seemingly forget to breathe.
On television advertising for bread, milk and cereals especially, there is always mention of folate or folic acid added. They used to say why it was added and some still do. When I was growing up, Professor Fiona Stanley identified the important role folic acid played during pregnancy in preventing serious birth defects like spina bifida.
Do you know where the world’s first clinical trial of the use of chemotherapy to treat children with leukaemia was? It was in Australia and conducted by Melbourne paediatrician Dr John Colebatch in 1948. It proved to be successful. This was an important development because before this trial, childhood leukaemia was a death sentence. The accepted practice was for doctors to administer palliative care to a child with childhood leukaemia because it was considered incurable. Today, 75% of children with leukaemia can be cured. There is much work that still needs to be done.
The Bionic Ear cochlear implant is an Australian invention with its development headed by Professor Graeme Clark. It has allowed more than 180,000 people to hear. The research for the development of the first heart pacemaker was conducted here in Australia at Sydney’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital in 1926. The device has become so routine that it doesn’t even appear in medical dramas as an episode.
Medical technology doesn’t just help adults, it also helps the smallest of our community, premature babies. Brothers Edward and Don Both in Tasmania in the 1930s developed the first humidicrib as a portable and inexpensive alternative to the iron lung in response to a polio epidemic at the time. This invention spread across the world and has now helped save the lives of millions of premature babies.
There is the advent of Spray on Skin for burns victims developed by Dr Fiona Wood. This hit the world headlines after the 2002 Bali bombings.
Maybe none of this matters to you because you have never been seriously ill or hurt in your life. You’re really lucky like me. I have never been in a hospital for extended periods of time but I know people who have been.
I have a cousin who would not be alive today if it were not for the Australian pioneering trial of using chemotherapy to treat childhood leukaemia. My grandmother’s stomach ulcers would not have an effective treatment plan had it not been for Professor Barry Marshall’s and Professor Robin Warren’s work with helicobacter pylori. I would personally be quite sickly because a few years ago I managed to contract bacterial pneumonia. It was horrible. Resting was not enough to recover. I needed that course of antibiotics. I will never forget feeling frightened because I was out of breath only after just getting out of bed to go to the bathroom.
This medical research is not the type that is associated with large pharmaceutical companies. This is the stuff for everyday. For people like you and I. The Australian Federal Government wants to strip $400 million dollars of funding from something that we all benefit from and embarrassingly take for granted. They are taking money from research they have yet to contribute to with a $1 billion dollar amount and now researchers and scientists have to fight to keep $700 million. This is the thank you and appreciation that your elected representatives are giving to the people who discover new and novel ways to keep us healthy and alive. It is not good enough.
This time, the budget cut is personal. Never mind the jobs of the scientists working. It is our health and well being on the chopping block.
Related Articles
- Discoveries Need Dollars
- Leukaemia Foundation voices concerns on $400 million cut to medical research (Leukaemia Foundation)
- Gentlemen’s rules are out: it’s time to unleash the beast (The Conversation)
The cuts make me twitchy. VERY twitchy. While Menzies as worried about them (and they should be), I can see side projects such as the stuff I do, NEVER getting funding ever. Its frustrating.
BTW if you want a huge speil about the NHMRC and how it developed its ethcis code let me know and I’ll send you a chpater of the beast.
The flow on effect from an actual cut to NHMRC won’t be fully realised as added pressure on other funding bodies. I think talented people will just leave Australia for better funded labs in other countries to continue their work. I’ve seen it happen in fields outside of medical research, people just leave and they don’t come back.
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Really good post. I’m hoping you’ll be part of the Protect Research rally this coming Tuesday.
If I was in a city with a protest rally on I’d be there with a banner. I’m not so I’m joining in the Twitter rally where possible and wearing a bright orange shirt signed by Prof Barry Marshall.