Monthly Archives: October 2011

NTDs in Central Asia has me losing sleep

Asia, NTDsCentral Asia, , Peter Hotez

A terrifying parasite.

By: Alanna Shaikh

Dr. Peter Hotez is trying to ruin my life. That’s the only reason I can find for his new article on “Central Asia’s hidden burden of neglected tropical diseases,” which was published last month in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.  I was already borderline obsessive about NTDs and the risk of getting them in my family. My only comfort was that we live in Tajikistan, which is far, far away from most major NTD–endemic areas. Dr. Hotez and his co-author, Dr. Ken Alibek of Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, have now taken even that small comfort from me. I may never sleep uninterrupted again. Last night I had a nightmare about glow in the dark helminthes.[1]

So, what is Central Asia’s hidden burden of NTDs? Well, they do not glow in the dark to my knowledge, but worms, worms, worms, in a big way. First, the soil-transmitted helminthes: “A study of rural primary schools in southwestern Kyrgyzstan found that many of the children had at least one soil-transmitted helminth infection.” Okay, I can ignore that somewhat. I wear shoes, I live in a nice house, I don’t farm for a living. But there’s more: “In four of the Central Asian nations, cystic echinococcosis — a tapeworm infection spread by dogs and sheep — has increased at least four-fold and is thought to be vastly under-reported.” But my dogs get worm prophylaxis, I avoid stray dogs, and I only see sheep up close as well-cooked mutton. Tapeworms can’t leap through my car window or survive being baked and boiled into plov. Continue reading →

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Diseases of poverty affect the bottom 50 million Americans

NTDs, poverty

Populations living in poverty within the U.S. are carrying much of the disease burden of neglected tropical diseases, a group of disabling infections that primarily occur among the poor. Sabin Vaccine President Dr. Peter Hotez sheds light on this issue in his latest opinion editorials published in the Austin-Statesman and The Huffington Post. Read the excerpts below:

Hotez: Neglected tropical diseases deserve attention
Austin Statesman
“The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that the number of Americans living in poverty is at an all-time high. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2010 climbed to 15.1 percent, with close to 50 million people living below the poverty line. Poverty among the “bottom 50 million” has emerged as the key factor in promoting the emergence of a group of chronic parasitic and related infections — the neglected tropical diseases — in the U.S. Our information reveals the existence of a hidden underbelly of neglected tropical diseases among the poorest people of color living in the American South.” Click here to continue reading.


A New Tropical Medicine Clinic for ‘Third World America’
The Huffington Post
“Poor economic conditions have long been known to increase the risk of disease. But only recently have diseases of poverty, mostly associated with countries outside the United States, been recognized as a growing problem here at home. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) might sound foreign, but they can actually be found in pockets of poverty across the U.S., most prominently in what Arianna Huffington recently called “Third World America.” Click here to continue reading.

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USAID Awards New Flagship Project “Envision” for Neglected Tropical Diseases

NTDs, pharmaceuticals, , , ,

In 2006, USAID launched its first-ever integrated program to target the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Managed by RTI International, the NTD Control Program is one of the first global efforts to integrate existing disease-specific treatment programs for the control and elimination of seven NTDs. Its five years proven track record has demonstrated that such programs can be successfully scaled up to achieve national-scale coverage of all at-risk individuals, an approach that is leading to the successful control and elimination of the targeted diseases.

Since the launch of USAID’s NTD Control Program in 2006, more than 447 million NTD treatments have been provided to more than 82 million people. This has been made possible through the donation of many of the required drugs needed to treat infected populations. More than $2.8 billion of medicines have been donated over the past five years through the pharmaceutical donation programs of GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc., and Pfizer to the countries in which USAID is supporting implementation of NTD control.

To add to this success, USAID’s Bureau for Global Health awarded Envision (the follow-on to the NTD Control Program) on September 26, 2011, to RTI. Envision is a five-year Cooperative Agreement, with a $240 million ceiling, that covers the period of October 1, 2011 to September 29, 2016. For the Envision project, RTI has partnered with CBM, Helen Keller International, IMA World Health, Sightsavers International, The Carter Center, Tulane University, and World Vision.

Under Envision, NTD control and elimination will continue to be supported by USAID and will expand in priority countries to further the development of evidence-based policies and standards globally. Envision will assist USAID and the Bureau for Global Health in supporting NTD-endemic countries to scale up control efforts to reduce the burden of the big seven NTDs.

Stayed tuned to End the Neglect, as we will feature more about this exciting new development at USAID.

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First Anniversary Update of World Health Organization’s NTD Report

NTDs, WHO, , WHO NTDs Report

Photo credit: World Health Organization

It’s been a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) released the first comprehensive report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The Global Network celebrated the launch of this report with a reception this time last year and we still remember the excitement surrounding this important release when it was first announced.  In honor of this anniversary, WHO released an updated version of the report, which can be downloaded here. Below are remarks from WHO’s General Director Margaret Chan on the updated version of the report:

“It is a year to the day since the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first report on neglected tropical diseases.

Almost always out of sight and rarely in news headlines, neglected tropical diseases are found exclusively among poor populations in deprived rural communities. They cause misery and disability, sometimes life-long, to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases, launched by WHO on 14 October 2010, provides evidence that existing safe, simple and effective interventions, implemented during the past seven years, are improving the health and quality of life of populations in 149 countries where many of the 17 diseases* occur. Approximately 90% of their burden can be treated with medicines administered only once or twice a year.” Click here to continue reading.