In terms of both life and productivity lost due to disease, the global disease burden of thirteen of the NTDs is approximately the same as that of HIV/AIDS, and is greater than that of either malaria or TB. Both public and private funding agencies have traditionally found it easier to rally the public around diseases with a high death toll. Third, while they maim and debilitate, these chronic diseases rarely cause death, unlike their better-known counterparts of malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS. Second, the inability of these patients to pay provides a powerful disincentive for companies developing diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines to venture into research and development of medical products for these diseases. While the global reach of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) has put these diseases on national agendas, the silent toll of NTDs on more isolated communities has been easier to ignore.
These patients live in isolated, remote areas, far from not only medical care and sanitation but also from contact with the media and from the more empowered members of the general public. First, the affected populations are the most politically and economically disenfranchised people on Earth. Why are the NTDs neglected?ĭespite their enormous impact, the NTDs have remained neglected for three key reasons. Together, NTDs debilitate individuals, families and - in countries where they are especially prevalent - entire economies. Others, like elephantiasis, Buruli ulcer, or the historically well-known plague of leprosy, are disfiguring and lead to ostracism and isolation.
Some NTDs, like blinding trachoma, are transmitted from mother to child and cripple humans from the moment of birth. Many NTDs stunt the physical and mental development of children, especially the intestinal worm infections that especially impact this population. NTDs disable their victims and prevent people from leading productive lives, locking the afflicted in a vicious cycle that keeps the poorest poor. These diseases, neglected by the public eye and in research agendas, actually account for over half a million deaths per year and debilitate over a billion people. The World Health Organization has grouped these seventeen diseases ( see Table 1) on the basis of their prevalence in the world’s poorest regions and their destructive impact on patients’ lives and local economies. What do the world’s “bottom billion” - the approximate number of the world’s citizens earning less than $1.25 USD per day - have in common? Aside from poor living conditions, malnutrition, and political voicelessness, they are also all more likely to suffer from so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), scourges that have become a hallmark of extreme poverty in the world.
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