Monthly Archives: November 2011

Four Ways to Think About NTDs

NTDs, , , ,

By: Alanna Shaikh

How do I think of NTDs, let me count the ways…

  1. As a social justice issue. The neglected tropical diseases exemplify unfairness on a global scale. NTDs disproportionately affect poor countries, and within poor countries they affect poor people. Among poor people, they disproportionately affect women and children[i]. NTDs are an assault on the members of our global community who are already living the most difficult lives and have the fewest resources to overcome the challenges of disease infection. Often disabling and disfiguring, the NTDs affect people already at risk for social exclusion – women and poor people – and push them even further to the periphery.

  2. As an economic issue. More than a billion people suffer from NTDs – diseases with symptoms like severe pain, blindness, extreme swelling of the limbs, fatigue, cognitive impairment, and anemia. That has a serious economic impact on the countries where NTDs are endemic. One example: chronic hookworm reduces lifetime wages earned by 40%. Furthermore, says Dr. Peter Hotez, NTD-related reductions in agricultural productivity results in billions of dollars lost every year. A billion here, a billion there – that kind of thing starts to add up. If that amount sounds overblown to you, remember that there are a billion people with NTDs. If they each lose ten dollars because of their infection, that’s a ten billion dollar loss right there. And NTDs, as mentioned affect women, children, and men working in agriculture.

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Impacting NTDs and the “Big Three”

NTDs, Public Health, , , ,

The 2011 World Health Summit wrapped up last month in Berlin, Germany. The Global Network was in attendance represented by Managing Director Dr. Neeraj Mistry, who discusses on the ONE Campaign Germany blog the importance of integrating efforts to address NTDs with those that address the “Big Three” – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Find the English version of the blogpost below:

By: Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

The 2011 World Health Summit brought together over 1,500 global health experts from over 75 countries to raise awareness of key issues in global health during October 23-26.  One such issue that the global health community must address is neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Over the last month, I’ve talked with you here on the ONE Deutschland Blog about the global impact of NTDs. We desperately need to draw attention to these diseases, to raise public awareness, and eventually eliminate NTDs.  At the World Health Summit, the Global Network hosted a symposium where we discussed the link between NTD control with control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Today I’d like to extend that discussion to you.

NTD treatment improves not only the health, but also the economic development and education of individuals and entire communities. Addressing NTDs will be essential to meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), meant to help lift the world’s poorest countries out of extreme poverty by the year 2015. In light of that, the United States, the United Kingdom and other G8 member countries have made commitments to NTD programs that have resulted in enormous gains in the treatment and prevention of these diseases. Continue reading →

UK NGO sets their sights on river blindness

Blindness, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, , , , ,

Sightsavers, a UK-based NGO that addresses preventable blindness in the developing world and contributors to End the Neglect, is this year’s Financial Times (FT) seasonal appeal recipient. Sgithsavers will receive donations from British readers who contribute to the FT appeal, which will run from November 21 – mid-January. The UK government has also agreed to match individual donations made to the appeal. Click here for more information on the appeal. Below an excerpt on the current state of river blindness published in FT:

“The river in Nigeria’s poor, remote northern state of Zamfara has always played a central part in the 70-year-old’s life. He and his friends swam in it as boys “until our eyes were red”. It is a vital source of water for homes, livestock and crops in Mr Adamu’s village of Birninwaje, a fishing and farming community of 3,000 people, where he was for many years the traditional leader. It is also the source of his blindness. River blindness is endemic in these parts. The parasitical disease is named after the black flies that live near flowing waterways such as the Zamfara – and across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and parts of the Arabian peninsula – and transmit one of the world’s leading causes of blindness.” Click here to read the full article. Also, check Jeremiah Norris’ (Director, Center for Science in Public Policy, Hudson Institute) Letter to the Editor in response to this piece.

 

Good News on River Blindness

Blindness, Latin America and the Caribbean, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, Vision, , , ,

By: Alanna Shaikh

Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala are making huge progress against river blindness, aka onchocerciasis. Colombia has eliminated river blindness from within its borders, the first country in Latin America to do so. Mexico and Guatemala have broken the cycle of transmission, and they’re ready to stop mass drug administration next year.

Elimination is a pretty clear term. It means that the disease, while still present on our planet, is down to zero in one particular region; in this case, Colombia. But what does it mean to break the cycle of transmission? Well, onchocerciasis is a tiny parasitic worm[1] that has a pretty complicated life cycle, and one particular kind of fly is essential to the survival of the disease. Without those flies, the disease is not transmitted and dies out.

Photo Credit: The Carter Center

To break the cycle of transmission, you spray insecticide in the areas of fast moving rivers where the flies breed. No more flies, no more onchocerciasis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it takes fourteen years of spraying to totally eliminate the reservoir of adult onchocerciasis worms and therefore make sure that the disease is gone. Once you’ve reached that point, it takes three more years of close monitoring to ensure that the disease really is gone. If there really are no cases in those three years, then, like Colombia, your country can be certified as having eliminated the disease. Continue reading →