As medical technology continues to evolve at a steady pace, treatment disparity keeps growing wider between the more educated and wealthier populations of the Western countries and the poorest parts of the rest of world.

Up to one-third of the world’s population lacks access to the most basic essential medicines and health care, especially in Africa and southeast Asia. Preventable or treatable diseases that have been eradicated or are now considered completely containable in the Western world—for example, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, or hepatitis A and B viruses (HAV and HBV)—still pose a significant threat for infection and epidemics in low-income countries. In those nations, up to 40 percent of the population has no access to life-saving medicines or proper health care, while in the most developed ...