The timely and sustained delivery of effective health interventions to communities in developing countries is one of the greatest challenges in global health. Millions of the world’s poorest citizens continue to be afflicted by bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections that have persisted, mainly in the tropics—the so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)—despite the availability of safe a...

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of tropical infections, such as river blindness, hookworm, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, and trachoma, which represent some of humankind’s most ancient scourges and possibly our greatest global health disparities. Largely confined to the unseen rural areas of the developing world, the NTDs were for centuries the forgotten diseases of for...

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) cover a wide range of infections that predominantly aff ect the poorest and most vulnerable individuals. Neglected, but not unknown, these diseases are preventable and treatable. They threaten the lives of more than 1 billion people worldwide, including half a billion children. To take the “neglected“ out of NTDs, public and private partners— including drug co...

Perspectives Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa – the countries known as BRICS – are transitioning from emerging economies to leaders in geopolitical affairs. While BRICS face increasing prevalence of noncom-municable disease and injury, they also continue to be burdened by many infectious diseases, including neglected tropical diseases. Neglected tropical diseases ar...

BACKGROUND Lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, and trachoma are the five most prevalent neglected tropical diseases in the world, and each is frequently treated with mass drug administrations. We performed a survey of neglected tropical diseases experts to elicit their opinions on the role of mass drug administrations for the elimination of these i...

BACKGROUND Onchocerciasis is a severe parasitic infestation which causes disabling skin and subcutaneous tissue changes. Current global estimates suggest that it accounts for 1135.7 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per 100,000 population. The disease is endemic in many African countries including Cameroon, probably suggesting that the current health policies are inadequate to achieve erad...

1 Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2 Division of Parasite Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, 3 Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center, Task Force for Global Health, Decatur, Georgia, United States of America, 4 RTI International, Washington, D.C., U...

The term ‘‘neglected tropical diseases’’ (NTDs) is commonly used to refer to a ‘‘baker’s dozen’’ of infectious conditions prevalent in resource-poor tropical countries. The 13 core diseases in the NTD group include ascariasis, dracunculiasis, hookworm, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trichuriasis, Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, Buruli ulcer, leprosy, and t...

Priorities for NTD control programmes will shift over the next 10-20 years as the elimination phase reaches the 'end game' for some NTDs, and the recognition that the control of other NTDs is much more problematic. The current goal of scaling up programmes based on preventive chemotherapy (PCT) will alter to sustaining NTD prevention, through sensitive surveillance and rapid response to resurge...

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonotic neglected infectious disease. It is common in tropical endemic areas including our nation. It is underreported and underdiagnosed in our country either due to the lack of awareness or due to the lack of proper diagnostic facilities. Leptospirosis should be considered during the differential diagnosis of other tropical febrile illnesses like dengue, malaria,...