Eight countries will have eliminated a neglected or forgotten tropical disease (NTD) by 2022. These diseases are a group of about twenty conditions that affect more than a billion people worldwide, mostly living in poor and poor sanitary conditions and caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites or toxins.
The elimination fits a trend: over the past decade, the number of people needing treatment for an NTD has fallen by 25 percent, with 80 million fewer people in the period 2020-2021 alone. The burden of disease is also declining. As of December 2022, 47 countries had eliminated at least one NTD, 11 of which have eliminated more than one disease. This is all evident from the recently published WHO Global Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases 2023.
Last year, the Democratic Republic of Congo eliminated dracunculiasis, or guinea worm disease, which occurs after drinking water containing water fleas infected with the guinea worm larva. Togo, Malawi, Saudi Arabia and Vanuatu ended trachoma, a bacterial infection of the conjunctiva of the eye that can lead to blindness and is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. Uganda and Equatorial Guinea put an end to trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), Rwanda did the same with the acute or Rhodesian variant of this disease.
The WHO does note that the positive trend has been disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic, which severely affected NTD programs. In the period 2021–2022, there were therefore several outbreaks of NTDs, including dengue, chikungunya, leishmaniasis and scabies.
