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By Sara Elghobashy November 3, 2009 As if swine flu hadn’t caused enough problems for Muslims, here’s some more good news on the health front. A recent report published by the Public Library of Science states that members of the Organization of Islamic the Conference (OIC), which is compromised of 56 member states who serve as “the collective voice of the Muslim world,” account for 40 percent of the world’s infestations with intestinal worms (with most cases occurring in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria), 20 percent of the world’s leprosy cases and 21 percent of blinding trachoma victims (with the highest number of cases occurring in Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali). The report also found that schistosomiasis is the most common tropical disease in member countries, with the highest number of cases occurring in Nigeria, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Peter Hotez, author of the report, said that he was inspired to work on this issue after hearing President Obama’s speech in Cairo, which encouraged “a new relationship between Islam and the West.” Regions and religions have been having a hard time getting along lately, but with the help of people like Dr. Hotez, there is hope for change. So Dr. Hotez set out to do the noble thing by finding a solution. He believes that “oil money, Western medical knowledge and better governance in some Muslim nations could quickly improve the lot of the poor.” Yes, oil money is all we Muslims have, isn’t it? We’re just drowning it. In fact, I can’t even walk around Cairo without bumping into a pile of oil money just lying there in the middle of the road. What Dr. Hotez doesn’t understand is that oil money only benefits a few select members of OIC. In fact, OIC includes some of the poorest countries in the world and according to the World Health Organization, “Neglected tropical diseases ... are mostly concentrated in settings of extreme poverty in remote rural areas, in urban slums or conflict zones and thrive in conditions of impoverishment. Those affected are poor and have little political voice.” The countries most affected have large rural populations, unsafe water, poor sanitation, and limited access to basic health care. Should Gulf countries (because that is who is he is referring to) shoulder the burden of eradicating infectious disease for the rest of the OIC member nations just because they have “oil money?” Well, Dr. Hotez certainly thinks so. In fact, he is surprised that “there is no school of tropical medicine anywhere in the Islamic world, even though several Persian Gulf nations are building top-tier universities.” The fact that Persian Gulf countries do not have outbreaks of tropical disease has nothing to do with it, huh? But that’s okay, because “Western knowledge” is obviously superior to all other knowledge so why should Persian Gulf universities even try? http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/muslim_countries_are_full_of_tropical_diseases_oil_money_to_the_rescue-nid8/