This is an easy consideration to forget. If something seems like a huge problem – perhaps the biggest problem in the world – it is natural to think one should focus on it. But if that problem already has a large amount of resources invested in it, then additional resources might be better spent elsewhere. For example HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria traditionally received much more attention than conditions like intestinal worms. One reason for this, I think, is that these other conditions cause a much greater amount of ill health (measured in number of deaths, or QALYs lost) than intestinal
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