Dr. Michel Chretien and fighting infectious diseases around the world

At noon Wednesday, Dr. Michel Chretien spoke to the Canadian Club. Dr. Chretien is a reknowned Canadian scientist who has made many important scientific contributions.

He was in Winnipeg today to talk about his efforts internationally to develop anti-viral drugs which can be used to treat viral diseases. Sadly, in the last 25 years only 1% of commercial drugs were designed to treat tropical diseases. This is in spite of the continuing devastating impact of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, Dengue Fever and many others.

So, Dr. Chretien has been instrumental in starting two major international initiatives. The first of these is the International Consortium on Anti-Viruses (ICAV). This Consortion is modeled on the successful Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence. At this point it already brings together 150 scientists in 15 different countries.

In addition to this effort, Dr. Chretien has started a program called Science Sans Frontiers. This effort, modeled after Medecins Sans Frontiers will bring scientists from around the world to work on scientific projects which can make a difference in the developing world. As Dr. Chretien pointed out, we can not end the viscous cycle of poverty in developing countries without being able to control infectious diseases which plague these countries.