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PRES: 14 million people are dying from infectious diseases every year, according to a report by the International Federation of Red Cross. Although heart attacks and cancer are the leading causes of death in the West, infectious diseases are killing more people and some are even re-surfacing in poor nations. Dr. Tammam Aloudat, IFRC Senior Officer for Health Emergencies blames the complacency of the Western world for this state of affairs. UN Radio's Jocelyne Sambira reports.

ALOUDAT: Who knows that 9 million people got dengue last year? Who knows that there have been at least 35 different outbreaks of meningitis- that does not happen in the West anymore. In Arabic we say far from the eye, far from the heart and that is happening. We do not see interest, we only see vague uncoordinated interest in high profile issues such as influenza, which is in itself a great risk but not the only one. The influenza killed so far 150 people. The potential for risk is massive, but what we have today is 14 million people dying mostly unnecessary from easily preventable diseases that require little resources.

NARRATOR: Fifteen thousand years ago, only three infectious diseases were known to humans in the world, today we have hundreds. Malaria which is now considered the poor man's disease was in Canada up to the 1800s before being eradicated. Cholera was also ravaging most of Europe. Most infectious diseases no long exist in Western countries but some like tuberculosis are coming back with a vengeance. Dr. Tammam Aloudat.

ALOUDAT: TB is in Europe already and in many part of the developing world. The concern is once that start happening here - and the influenza gave us a very good example. Once the west and the richer part of the world is threatened, the already extremely scarce resources will go there.

NARRATOR: A recent survey about influenza in the United Kingdom showed that 75% of the people did not change their hand washing habits, a simple gesture that would prevent the spreading of the disease. That is why IFRC's Dr. Aloudat feels that treatment in itself is not enough.

ALOUDAT: A first step would be probably a consensus on how big the issue is, and then not only asking for resources but revising what we do as public health institutions, what the public can do and what governments can do. Once we agree that, we need to partner more vigorously, we need to sit and examine our ways. If health promotion and marketing is not convincing highly educated rich populations, is it going to convince others or do we need to make that a bigger point on the agenda, or do we need to change our ways or do we need to think about it differently? Neither us, nor any single organization will be able to do that alone.

NARRATOR: That was Dr. Tammam Aloudat from the Federation of the International Red Cross on the upsurge of epidemics in the developing countries. I am Jocelyne Sambira reporting for UN Radio.

(duration: 2'40")