TORONTO (Reuters) - Using biotechnology to produce simple nutritional and hygienic improvements and cheap vaccines would do more to improve global health than the development of high-tech treatments, a survey of 28 leading scientists from around the world concludes.

A report on the survey done by two University of Toronto researchers, released on Friday, said the scientists surveyed produced a list of top 10 biotechnologies to improve health. They include development of cheap vaccines, ways to cleanse drinking water, and methods to genetically modify foods to enhance nutritional value.

The list mentions no high-tech treatments such as artificial hearts or organ transplants.

The report shows a consensus among scientists from countries as diverse as Canada, India, the United States, South Korea ( news - web sites) and Cuba on the need for improved health care for the billions of poor people around the world.

"The key message here is that you can use very high-powered science and cutting-edge technology to find solutions for diseases that are killing millions around the world," said Abdallah Daar, the study's co-author, who is director of the Joint Center for Bioethics at the University of
Toronto.

The study, published in U.S. journal Nature Genetics on Friday, calls for urgent attention to be paid to the inequality in health care between the developed and developing world, where more than 5 billion people live.

"Ninety percent of the all medical research is targeted at problems affecting only 10 percent of the world's population,' said Peter Singer, the other author of the study, who is also a director of the Joint Center for Bioethics.

"If you say biotech, the average person would think about Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Harvard or Stanford, but the message of this report is that the main benefits of biotechnology may actually be in Delhi and Beijing and Johannesburg and Rio De Janeiro," Singer said.

First on the list is the need to develop technology to diagnose infectious diseases. Second is technology to develop vaccines to fight those diseases.

Some other priorities on the list include: better methods of drug delivery, technologies to clean the environment, vaccines to allow women to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, genetically modified food such as corn and rice with enhanced nutritional value, and computer-based tools to mine data on human and nonhuman gene sequences for clues to preventing and treating diseases. 

"The top 10 list also debunks the myth that biotechnology cannot provide tools for disease prevention and health promotion," Daar said. 

"Just as we promote the use of bednets for malaria, we must also develop new malaria drugs based on knowledge of the malaria parasite's genome and genetic modification of the mosquito that carries malaria."

Singer and Daar said the technologies mentioned on the list can realistically be put to use within a decade to help developing countries. 

"With most biotechnologies being applied to the health problems of the industrialized nations, the World Health Organization ( news - web sites) and other health bodies have voiced serious concerns," Singer said.

Daar added: "We hope this report will receive the serious consideration of health and science ministers worldwide and by the international donor community as a guide to research and funding priorities."