Neglected tropical diseases, some of which are insect-borne, affect approximately 1.7 billion people and remain a threat, even with resources being reallocated to fight the current pandemic. This group of diseases, known collectively by the World Health Organization (WHO) as ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases’, or NTDs, can cause terrible suffering around the globe. Fortunately, some of them can be prevented or cured.
Neglected Tropical Diseases
The NTDs include Chagas disease, leprosy, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), yaws, trachoma, filariasis/elephantiasis, intestinal worms, dengue, chikungunya, onchocerciasis, Guinea worm disease, schistosomiasis, scabies, schistosomiasis, snakebite envenoming, and a few others. About half of the NTDs are transmitted by insect bites, especially mosquitoes.5 Highlights of Dangerous Insect-Borne Diseases
- The number of people impacted dropped from 2.0 billion in 2010 to 1.7 billion in 2017.
- These diseases blind, disable, and disfigure people, keeping children out of school and adults out of work so the economic burden is stifling.
- NTDs are found primarily in poorer populations in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Africa, Asia, and South America.
- Since a WHO ‘roadmap to eradication’ was developed in 2012, 42 countries have eliminated at least one NTD.
- It is the goal of WHO to have a 90% reduction in people requiring treatment for NTDs in the next 10 years. This is to be done by providing safe and available drugs, and through aggressive vector control.