| If you haven't heard of leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, and trachoma, you aren't alone. Most of these diseases have little name recognition in industrialized countries, but together they cause severe disability in the world's poorest countries, resulting in billions of dollars of lost productivity. Recognizing that multiple voices calling for the world's attention are more effective than singular, disjointed efforts, the separate disease programs aimed at controlling or eliminating these diseases have come together to form the Neglected Tropical Disease Coalition (NTDC). The NTDC provides a unique opportunity for collaborative advocacy activities in industrialized countries while member organizations also explore coordination, or integration of disease treatment and prevention activities in endemic countries. Open to all interested parties, the NTDC is composed of individual disease alliances, international agencies, corporate partners, academic institutions, faith-based groups, and non-governmental organizations.
Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently identified these diseases as 'targets of opportunity' in the effort to improve global health. All six of these diseases are being targeted for control or elimination due to remarkable scientific breakthroughs and unprecedented corporate philanthropy. Several of these diseases, river blindness in the Americas, trachoma in Morocco, and leprosy worldwide already represent near success. Treating these 'targets of opportunity' will produce more vigorous economies and result in a better quality of life for some of the world's poorest communities.
To learn more about neglected tropical diseases, please click here. |
