Neglected Tropical Diseases (Human)

Primary reference(s)

WHO, no date. Neglected Tropical Diseases. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 14 September 2020.

WHO, 2020. Ending the neglect to attain the sustainable development goals: a road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030: overview. World Health Organization (WHO).

Additional scientific description

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect more than one billion people and cost developing economies billions of dollars every year. They are often termed ‘neglected’ as the people who are most affected are the poorest populations living in rural areas, urban slums and conflict zones (WHO, no date). More than 200,000 people die each year from snakebite envenoming, rabies and dengue alone, and lack of timely access to affordable treatment leaves hundreds of millions severely disabled, disfigured or debilitated (WHO, 2015).

Populations living in poverty, without adequate sanitation and in close contact with infectious vectors and domestic animals and livestock are those worst affected. Affecting the world’s poorest people, neglected tropical diseases impair physical and cognitive development, contribute to mother and child illness and death, make it difficult to farm or earn a living, and limit productivity in the workplace. As a result, neglected tropical diseases trap the poor in a cycle of poverty and disease (WHO, no date).

At present, the World Health Organization (WHO) categorises the following communicable diseases as NTDs: Buruli Ulcer, Chagas Disease, Chromoblastomycosis, Cysticercosis, Dengue Fever, Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease), Echinococcosis, Fascioliasis, Human African Trypanosomiasis (African Sleeping Sickness), Leishmaniasis, Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease), Lymphatic Filariasis, Mycetoma, Onchocerciasis, Rabies, Schistosomiasis, Soil-transmitted Helminths (Ascaris, Hookworm, and Whipworm), Trachoma, Yaws (WHO, no date).

Metrics and numeric limits

Not applicable.

Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management

The WHO Roadmap on neglected tropical diseases, underpinned by successive World Health Assembly resolutions, sets out a comprehensive plan for the control, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases by 2030 that succeeded an earlier plan for 2011–2020 (WHO, 2012, 2020).

Effective control of neglected tropical diseases can be achieved when: public health approaches are combined and delivered locally; interventions are guided by the local epidemiology and the availability of appropriate measures to detect, prevent and control diseases; and implementation of appropriate measures with high coverage has the potential to result in the elimination and eradication of a number of neglected tropical diseases (WHO, no date).

The WHO recommends five public-health interventions to accelerate the prevention, control, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases: preventive chemotherapy; innovative and intensified disease management; vector control and pesticide management; safe drinking-water, basic sanitation and hygiene services, and education; and zoonotic disease management (WHO, 2012).

The following neglected tropical diseases can be controlled or even eliminated through mass administration of safe and effective medicines (mass drug administration), or other, effective interventions: dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease); lymphatic filariasis; onchocerciasis; schistosomiasis; soil-transmitted helminths; and trachoma (CDC, no date).