Working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases: first WHO report on neglected tropical diseases

Overview

 Neglected tropical diseases blight the lives of a billion people worldwide and threaten the health of millions more. These close companions of poverty weaken impoverished populations, frustrate the achievement of health in the Millenium Development Goals and impede global public health outcomes.

Wider recognition of the public health significance of neglected tropical diseases and better knowledge of their epidemiology have stimulated necessary changes in public health thinking to approach and achieve control. The World Health Organization recommends five public-health strategies for the prevention and control of these diseases: Preventive chemotherapy, intensified case management, vector control, veterinary public health, and safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Although one approach may dominate for control of a specific disease or group of diseases, evidence suggests that more effective control results when all five approaches are combined and delivered locally.

The report presents evidence to demonstrate that activities undertaken to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases are producing results -- and that achievements are being recognized. By 2008, preventive chemotherapy had reached more than 670 miilion people in 75 countries.

Leadership from WHO has catalyzed the formation of a community of partners committed to supporting the governments of countries where these diseases are endemic with a shared purpose: working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases, and reducing the burden of morbidity and mortality that they impose of the health of their citizens and the economic productivity of their states.

ASSOCIATED DOCUMENT

• Agir pour réduire l'impact des maladies tropicales négliégées: Premier rapport de l'OMS sur les maladies tropicales négligées
  
  
• Trabalhando para superar o impacto global de doenças tropicais negligenciadas: Primeiro relatório da OMS sobre doenças tropicais negligenciadas