Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Abstract

The neglected tropical diseases are a group of 13 major disabling conditions that are among the most common chronic infections in the world's poorest people. A blueprint for the control or elimination of the seven most prevalent neglected tropical diseases — ascariasis, trichuriasis, hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, and onchocerciasis — has been established by a group of private, public, and international organizations working together with pharmaceutical partners and national ministries of health. Through the newly established Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, with updated guidelines for drug administration issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), partnerships are coordinating their activities in order to launch a more integrated assault on these conditions. If new resources are made available, as recommended by the Commission for Africa, a scaled-up approach to simple interventions could lead to sustainable decreases in poverty in some of the world's poorest countries. These decreases would represent a major success story for the United Nations Millennium Declaration.