SWITZERLAND — A report by the World Health Organization shows that the number of people requiring Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) interventions fell by 80 million between 2020 and 2021.
As of 2022, eight countries were certified or validated as having eliminated one NTD. Similarly, as of December 2022, 47 countries had eliminated at least one NTD and more countries were in the process of achieving this target.
NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions mainly prevalent in tropical areas and are caused by a variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and toxins.
These diseases cause devastating health, social and economic consequences, and when they aren’t deadly, they very often cause life-long social stigma and consequent economic hardship.
NTDs include Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya, dracunculiasis, echinococcosis, foodborne trematodiases, human African trypanosomiasis leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, mycetoma, chromoblastomycosis, and other deep mycoses.
Other diseases in this category include onchocerciasis, rabies, scabies, and other ectoparasitoses, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, snakebite envenoming, taeniasis/cysticercosis, trachoma, and yaws.
NTDs continue to disproportionately affect the poorest members of the global community, primarily in areas where water safety, sanitation, and access to health care are inadequate.
Although as many as 179 countries and territories reported at least one case of NTDs in 2021, 16 countries accounted for 80% of the global NTD burden.
Around 1.65 billion people were estimated to require treatment for at least one NTD, globally.
According to the report, in 2021, 25% fewer people required interventions against NTDs than in 2010, and more than one billion people were treated for NTDs each year between 2016 and 2019 through mass treatment interventions.
“Around the world, millions of people have been liberated from the burden of neglected tropical diseases, which keep people trapped in cycles of poverty and stigma,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
The new report emphasizes greater efforts and investments required to reverse delays and accelerate progress towards the NTD road map targets by 2030.
Promoting country ownership and accountability, as well as the sustainability and predictability of financing, including more robust domestic funding, are key to achieving the NTD roadmap goals and enabling countries to deliver on their commitments to provide quality NTD services to affected populations.
Multi-sectoral collaboration and partnerships vital to defeating NTDs
Last week, WHO and Gilead Sciences signed a new agreement for the donation of 304 700 vials of AmBisome (liposomal amphotericin B for injection) for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in countries most impacted by the disease, extending their previous agreement to 2025.
The new three-year collaboration is estimated at US$ 11.3 million and also makes provision for financial support to WHO.
WHO urges more partners and donors to come forward and fill existing gaps that hinder the full-scale implementation of NTD activities at global and local levels.
Later this week, the 152nd session of the WHO Executive Board will consider admitting The Carter Center into official relations with WHO.
WHO’s NTD work in 2021 and 2022 resulted in over 100 scientific guidelines, tools, and other information products, to assist the global NTD community including countries in need.
The Open WHO platform started an NTD channel offering 36 training courses for health workers on 19 separate subjects.
WHO continues to evaluate and approve new medicines to treat neglected tropical diseases, and works steadfastly to ensure equity and human rights in all NTD service delivery.
On World NTD Day under the theme “Act now. Act together. Invest in neglected tropical diseases,” WHO is calling on everybody, including leaders and communities, to confront the inequalities that drive NTDs and to make bold, sustainable investments to free the world’s most vulnerable communities affected by NTDs from a vicious cycle of disease and poverty.
In 2020, World Health Assembly (WHA) endorsed the NTD road map for 2021-2030. In 2021, the WHA announced that January 30th will be recognized as World NTD Day every year.
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