Neglected Tropical Diseases

Well, neglected tropical diseases are neglected, but I don't see any concentrated effort on those three. Although there were notable successes.

Largest organization fighting with them - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - still waits for promised money.

They are low-profiled diseases, because they kill lot of less people, are mostly local and attack disadvantaged people.

Besides, even with NTDs there were some positive stories.

Prime example is dracunculiasis, which fallen from 900 000 cases in 1989 to 3000 cases in 2009. Currently every village, where the parasite remains is monitored.

African tripanosomiasis fallen from 28 000 in year 1999 to 10 000 in 2008.

668 million of people were covered by preventive chemotherapy.

This is purely researched article. Lets say something about chosen neglected tropical diseases:

• dengue - insect-borne outbreaks in Americas ans South-Eastern asia,

• rabies - global disease, livestock killer, major economic problem,

• trachoma - makes your lashes grow inward your eyes, blindness causes loses in productivity, 8 million cases a year, there is effective strategy for elimination,

• buluri ulcer - large ulcers on legs and arms in children,

• yaws, bejel, pinta - ulcers and in case of yaws destruction bones, easily treatable,

• leprosy - 122 countries, but steadily decreasing, most of cases in South-East Asia,

• Chagas disease - insect-borne, this blood-sucking bug lives only in Americas, 10 000 death a year, in decline,

• sleeping sickness - expensive and dangerous treatment, remains in Central and Western Africa,

• leishmaniasis - visceral (attacking liver) and cutaneous forms;

  first is real killer, over 50 000 deaths, mostly India and Bangladesh,

  second is causing scars in more than a million people a year, mostly Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil,

• cysticercosis - global, parasites living in a brain, millions of cases a year, tens of millions of people living with epilepsy, causes loses in livestock, China is only country, which has extensive elimination program, diseases causes hundreds millions of dollars lost in pork,

• dracunculiasis - giant subcutaneous worm, hopefully will be eradicated soon,

• echinococosis - worm transmittable by dogs, live in liver and lungs, global, endemic regions even in Europe,

• Clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis, fascioliasis and and paragonimiasis - causes by long-lived worms, first three like liver, last lungs, all are food-borne, people are slowly collect them, estimated tens of millions of cases, preventive chemotherapy applied, where available,

• lymphatic filariasis - over 100 million of people living with infection, in worst cases - elephantiasis, ongoing elimination, Africa and South-East Asia,

• liver blindness - insect-borne disease, larvae may happily live 14 years under the skin, then they mature and female spawns thousands of of new larvae travelling through body, large scale prevention in place, tens of millions infections treated and hundreds of thousand cases of blindness prevented, 25 million hectares of arable land reclaimed over the years, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, 605 coverage of endemic area,

• schistosomiasis/bilharziasis - water-borne worm living in veins of the pelvis, millions of cases, over 10 million treated, very cost-effective prevention, below$1 a year per person,

• helminthiases - soil-borne diseases, global, over billion cases a year, mostly school kids, internal bleedind or rectal prolapse may cause decrease in school attainment, treatment,