And then there is a surprising obstacle. – Often the diseases are also neglected by those who are affected, he says. – Many NTDs disfigure those infected or cause severe physical impairments. This means that infected people are often stigmatized and even more marginalized. That’s why many people hide away or stop talking out loud like that. This may mean that they do not seek medical attention, which makes the illness worse. But it can also have major social consequences. For example, if one is infected by the parasite leishmaniasis, which is spread through the bite of sandflies, one can get large oozing sores and boils on the face. Albis Francesco Gabrielle explains that it could mean, for example, that young women do not get married or that infected people are ostracized from their families. – It can be completely life-changing to be affected by an NTD, he says. Massive mass treatments Almost 20 years ago, the WHO brought together the very different diseases, under the collective term NTDs, in order to create a lasting focus on them. – Since then there has been a momentum and there has been much more attention than before on the neglected tropical diseases, says Gabrielli. He emphasizes that they are still massively under-prioritised in relation to the need. But great progress has been made: more money is being spent to fight the diseases, several large pharmaceutical companies are donating medicine and treatments for a number of the diseases and there has been great progress to ensure clean water and infection-free toilets. At the same time, there has been a large roll-out of mass treatment for several of the diseases. This means that all people in areas where there is an outbreak of the disease or diseases must take preventive medicine to stop the spread of the infections. Large systems are being created to distribute the medicine – for example, more than nine billion tablet cures have been distributed to combat elephantiasis worldwide since 2020. At least 65 percent of the population in an endemic area must take the medicine against elephantiasis if one is to reduce the spread of infection. The effort has meant that progress has been made – both in distributing mass treatments and in reducing the number of people who get the diseases. Significantly fewer people need treatment at all because their areas are no longer endemic. Over 819 million people received mass treatment against one or more of the diseases in 2022. The number of people who need treatment – either preventively or directly – against NTDs has fallen by 570 million between 2010 and 2022. That’s a drop of 25 percent, shows WHO’s latest analysis – from approx. 2.2 billion people to about 1.6 billion people.
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Great progress against diseases that affect the world’s poorest people
