What do you get when you cross cartoonists with public health experts? You get a bunch of baccili-busters! The WHO-hosted Stop TB Partnership released a comic book on July 24 aimed at teaching children and teens about tuberculosis and how to prevent it. The Stop Tuberculosis Team is captained by the Portuguese soccer star, Luis Figo, who in the comic book leads his team to victory against a team of tuberculosis germs. In a statement issued on the occasion of the comic book launch, Figo urges young people to take the comic book's message seriously: "Tuberculosis is a killer, and I want all of you to stay safe from it. I am passing the ball to you -- you can help reach the goal of stopping tuberculosis."The comic book is the result of a global competition in January 2008 to reward the best comic design aimed at preventing TB. At stake in the competition was a US$5000 cash prize from the Stop TB Partnership along with worldwide acclaim from cartoon and comic circles (most likely a greater incentive than the cash!).This idea of using a prize to incentivize global health and development innovation is a somewhat recent fad (maybe a comic book prize will become a fad within a fad) drawing from the positive impact experienced with reward models in science and technology. Prizes have also been promoted by many as a way to overcome the lack of investment in drugs for neglected disease as we noted in 2005. A large amount of scholarly work assesses the value of prizes and reward incentives as effective mechanisms for innovation. Many people, like economist Joseph Stiglitz, have argued that awarding prizes for medical innovation would be "more efficient and more equitable" than the current intellectual property rights system. Other experts argue that models such as the Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act of 2007, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, are too ambitious, given the lack of supporting evidence. There is still much to learn regarding optimal levels of investment in prizes. In May, the 61st World Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, which includes proposals of possible incentive schemes. Although there is more to consider regarding health impact prize funds, World TB Cup displays its incentivized innovation with a cross-cultural array of cartoons for increasing awareness, and there's always room for more of that global public good.
