Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) may seem like faraway diseases in faraway places, but readers in the United States may be surprised to learn that many people grapple with these devastating diseases within our own borders. Not everyone is at risk of getting NTDs. These are diseases of  poverty, and risk factors include inadequate housing and sanitation.

NTDs in Texas and neighboring Mexico are the subject of a paper coauthored by Sabin president Dr. Peter Hotez, which was published earlier this week in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The authors highlight the burden of NTDs in Texas and Mexico and call for increased surveillance, improved education for healthcare workers and new therapies to control the high rates of NTDs like Chagas disease, dengue fever, leishmaniasis and hookworm in the region. The paper also draws attention to new collaborations between The Carlos Slim Foundation, the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, including a new tropical medicine clinic at Ben Taub Community Hospital in Houston.

Below is an excerpt of a press release describing the research. The PLoS paper can be read here.

Neglected Tropical Disease Control is a Key to Fighting Poverty in Texas and Mexico

A New Clinic in Houston has been Established to Fight These Infections

Washington D.C., March 27, 2012— A paper jointly published in Public Library of Science (PLoS) called for increased attention to diseases that infect people living in poverty in Texas and Mexico. According to the authors of the paper, increased surveillance, improved education for healthcare workers and new therapies are necessary in order to control the high rates of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) like Chagas disease, dengue fever, leishmaniasis and hookworm.

Hundreds of thousands of people living in Texas, as well as millions more in southern Mexico, have NTDs. However, according to the paper’s authors, the burden of these diseases in the region is likely an underestimate.

NTDs are bacterial and parasitic diseases that tend to impact the world’s poorest populations, often because they lack adequate housing and sanitation infrastructure like air conditioning, window screens and running water.  For example, in Texas, those living below the poverty line have the highest rates of NTD infection in the state.

“NTDs aren’t the sort of diseases we normally hear about in the United States,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.  “But these diseases have a significant impact on the health, development and productivity of communities. They can prevent people from escaping the cycle of poverty.”

You can read the full press release on Globalnetwork.org