Neglected Tropical Diseases

Last week saw Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD’s) make headlines in the scientific and humanitarian community. On 30^th January, 13 of some of the world’s most renowned pharmaceutical companies together with prominent leaders and other charitable organisations pledged to work towards actively combating and eradicating some of the world’s deadliest yet neglected diseases by 2020.

I have followed this closely, done my research and here to bring you a summary of what there is to know about NTD’s. Visit World Health Organisation for more Information on NTD’s. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/neglected_tropical_diseases/en/index.html

Neglected Tropical Disease refers to 17 selected diseases of ancient times which still remain a burden in 149 countries today. They have been highlighted as predominantly affecting the poor in developing countries. There are about 1.4 billion people affected by these diseases and the companies (listed in the table below) have pledged to donate an average of 1.4 billion treatments each year to those in need. Most of these conditions are preventable and treatable and can be eradicated through sanitation, clean water, awareness and early medical intervention. Of course these key measures remain a challenge in the affected regions and it is for this reason that these pledgers have vowed to actively pursue the eradication of NTD’s by 2020.  

10 out of these 17 of which this pledge is to actively address are:

1. Sleeping sickness, or Human African Trypanosomiasis
2. Guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis
3. Lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis
4. Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis
5. Visceral Leishmaniasis or kala-azar-azar
6. Onchocerciasis, or river blindness
7. Soil-transmitted helminth's (STH)
8. Blinding Trachoma
9. Leprosy
10. Onchocerciasis, or river blindness

A brief summary of these diseases and the areas of prevalence can be found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9048983/The-ten-tropical-diseases-being-targeted.html

Together the pledgers have vowed to:

•         Sustain, expand and extend drug supply to affected nations
•          Accelerate research and development for new treatments
•          Increase funding to improve drug product and operational research
•    Increase funding to improve delivery and implementation programmes including prevention, monitoring and education
•          Coordinate their efforts and work together to achieve these goals by 2020

Click for details of the pledges made. http://www.vadvert.co.uk/health/21555-private-and-public-partners-unite-to-combat-10-neglected-tropical-diseases-by-2020.html

Table 1: Pledgers on eradicating Neglected Tropical Disease by 2020.

Pharmaceutical companies	Governments	Other Organisations
GSK	UK	WHO
Merck & Co	USA	World bank
Novartis AG	UAE	Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
Sanofi Aventis		Children’s investment fund foundation
Bayer HealthCare		USAID
Johnson & Johnson		DFID
Bristol- Myers-squipp Co		Lion’s club International
Pfizer Inc
Gilead Sciences Inc
Merck KGaA
Abbott Laboratories
AstraZeneca Plc
Eisai Co