Neglected Tropical Diseases

Question 1

Groups of NTDs

Answer 1

Viruses, Bacteria, Helminth

Question 2

Relationship between mortality and morbidity in NTDs

Answer 2

Low mortality, high morbidity (Disablers)

Question 3

Health Outcomes caused by specific NTDs

Answer 3

• Anemia (many of the worm infections)
• Blindness (onchoceriasis, trachoma)
• Disability (leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, buruli ulcer)
• Cancer (schistosomiasis, food-borne trematodes)
• Heart problems (Chagas)
• Skin lesions/disfigurement (leishmaniasis, leprosy, yaws, buruli ulcer)
• Pain (guinea worm, leprosy, chikigunya, others)

Question 4

How are NTDs underestimated?

Answer 4

Many DALY/GBD don’t account for death adn disability of some NTDs Example: WHO estimates death from schisto to be around 280,000 deaths, 20x what GBDs estimate

Question 5

How does the research and funding of diseases like HIV and diabetes compare to that of NTDs?

Answer 5

Research on NTDs is disproportionately lower for NTDs even though they effect a higher proportion of people
US global health funding for NTDs is very low (around 1%)

Question 6

Priorities for NTD research

Answer 6

New drugs, vector control, improved diagnostics, vaccines

Question 7

Relationship between NTDs and Poverty

Answer 7

70% of countries with NTDs are low or middle income

100% of low income countries are affected by NTDs

Question 8

Summarize downstream effects of NTDs on development (both socioeconomic and physical

Answer 8

• Ability to impair childhood growth, intellectual development, education and worker productivity
• Hence, are a cause of poverty and underdevelopment
• Many are disabling, disfiguring, stigmatizing
• Shortage (or absence) of safe and effective treatments
• Affected patients have represented the lowest priority markets for Western pharmaceutical manufacturers (“The forgotten”)

Question 9

Describe strategies for combatting NTDS and understand examples of different strategies

Answer 9

Rapid impact packages of drugs
• More engagement with populations/anthropologic approaches
o Culturally appropriate programs
o “not just medics administrating drugs
• Integrating programs with “the big 3: malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS
o Geographic overlap, Synergistic interactions between the diseases
o Cost effective
• Vaccines
o Yellow fever; Dengue; rabies (happen also to affect higher income countries)
o Helminth vaccines in development
• Active surveillance
o Critical for leprosy
• Education/public health campaigns
• WASH strategies