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page title: neglected diseases

Neglected tropical diseases

Buruli ulcer
Chagas disease
Cholera/epidemic diarrhea
Dengue
Guinea worm
Endemic treponematoses
Sleeping sickness Leishmaniasis
Leprosy
Lymphatic filariasis
Onchocerciasis
Schistosomiasis
Soil-transmitted helminthiasis
Trachoma
NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES AFFECT MORE THAN 1 BILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE, mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. Rare in more developed regions, the diseases are “neglected” because they persist in only the poorest communities—places where people lack access to basic health care, nutrition, and sanitary conditions. Children are especially vulnerable, often with lifelong debilitating effects.

The diseases are also “neglected” in the sense that they command relatively little attention from health care systems and medical researchers. Although the diseases cause much suffering, they are not associated with high mortality and pose little danger of spreading to populations worldwide. Some can be prevented, diagnosed, or treated at very low cost, but gaps in the health care delivery system mean that medications and treatments do not reach many communities.

The Izumi Foundation supports projects that address 14 neglected tropical diseases that have been identified by the World Health Organization. The foundation often joins in supporting mass drug administration and other communitywide interventions that have proven effective in controlling a disease or its symptoms.

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The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis supports the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis in pursuit of two goals: eliminating lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem by 2020 and alleviating physical, social, and economic hardship in individuals affected by the disease. Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is caused by a mosquito-borne parasite that blocks the normal drainage of fluid from tissues. Although LF cannot be cured, the transmission cycle can be broken by effective mass administration of antiparasitic drug combinations. The Foundation has provided support for mass drug administration in Zanzibar, Kenya, Madagascar, and Tanzania.

The Carter Center’s Schistosomiasis Control Program delivers community-wide drug administration and health education campaigns in Nigeria. Schistosomiasis affects some 200 million people in 74 countries. Contracted when people swim or bathe in water containing parasitic larvae transmitted by snails, the disease causes anemia, malnutrition, bladder disfunction, central nervous system lesions, kidney disease, liver failure, and premature death. A single annual dose of the anthelmintic praziquantel reverses up to 90 percent of the damage caused by schistosomiasis.

The Mebendazole Donation Initiative of the Task Force for Child Survival and Development is assisting the Zambian government to control intestinal worm infections in school-age children. If left untreated, the infections may lead to impaired cognitive ability and reduced school attendance and performance. Intestinal worm infections are associated with poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. Thus, MDI and its partners promote a comprehensive control strategy that combines mass treatment with mebendazole, health education, and sanitation improvements.

The International Trachoma Initiative carried out a study of techniques for delivering eyelid surgery in Tanzania and provided surgery and antibiotics in Mali. Trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world, damages the eye through repeated infection by a bacterium that spreads easily from person to person. The International Trachoma Initiative delivers community-wide interventions using the SAFE strategy (surgery, antibiotics, face washing, and environmental changes) to treat infection and reverse the eyelid damage that eventually leads to vision loss.

The Izumi Foundation supports additional efforts to reduce the burden of trachoma. In one project, Orbis International is providing surgical services, antibiotics, and training for health care workers in Ethiopia. In another, Helen Keller International is conducting surgical campaigns to reduce the backlog of eyelid surgery in endemic regions of Tanzania.



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