A Celebration Of The Last 20 Years – And A Wish For NTDs In The Next 20
Over the last 20 years, more than 250 million people have been reached with life-saving neglected tropical disease (NTD) interventions. To mark this significant achievement, USAID recently convened a group of NTD champions to celebrate the delivery of a half a billion treatments against NTDs worldwide.
NTDs, from lymphatic filariasis to onchocerciasis to intestinal worms, affect up to 1.4 billion people worldwide. The poorest people in the world are disproportionately affected – often because they do not have access to clean water and sanitation. When you consider that these regions do not have the infrastructure to support even basic sanitation systems, it’s both staggering and amazing that the health community has been able to reach up to 250 million in 20 countries with these treatments.
To celebrate the milestone, partners from both the public and private sectors honored four of the pioneers and champions of the battle to end NTDs in Africa during a gathering hosted by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy. As I listened to Dr. Nana Biritwum, Dr. Mwele Malecela, Dr. Uche Amazigo, and Dr. Ade Lucas recount their significant effort to control or eliminate one or more of the NTDs in their respective programs, I couldn’t help but marvel how much progress we’ve made against NTDs over the last 20 years. Everyone reflected on their respective achievements as well as what they were able to accomplish in those early years – before these diseases made it onto the global health agenda and resources were meager.
Sen. Leahy may have been half-joking when he said, "I am not sure where the neglect is when I look at the amount of $89 million on the NTD line on the appropriations bill for 2012." But considering that these funds are primarily used to prevent and treat seven of the 20+ NTDs that affect 1.4 billion people, that is just a little over 6 cents per person. And if we look at the fact that 10 years ago – when the budget line was a mere $2.5 million – it speaks loudly to the heroic accomplishments of advocates who brought the plight of these diseases to the attention of our lawmakers.
Since the London Declaration on NTDs was made earlier this year, USAID, foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and other global health partners and organizations have rallied to align the resources necessary to achieve the targets laid out in the WHO roadmap, including combating soil transmitted helminthiasis (STH). From the STH perspective, Johnson & Johnson and Children Without Worms realize that the countries who want to reach and treat all the children infected with intestinal worms have limited resources and capacity. Even though the combined commitment of 600 million doses of Vermox from Johnson & Johnson and albendazole from GlaxoSmithKline to treat pediatric intestinal worms can theoretically be made available this next year, the endemic country’s ability to deliver medicine to communities most in need is limited. To overcome these barriers, it will be critical to work closely with our global partners to galvanize the necessary resources to fully utilize the available medicines.
The celebration was the perfect precursor to the upcoming one-year anniversary of the London Declaration – an ideal way to cast a spotlight on the successes of those working tirelessly to eliminate NTDs and keep the momentum going as we ready for this major milestone. The messages were simple and showed legislators that their support is more critical now than ever – their appropriations are making a difference to people around the world and saving lives. More importantly, having more than 40 public, private and multilateral organizations from the NTD community represented clearly demonstrated that our community is engaged and deeply appreciative of USAID and the legislators’ continued support.
Dare I imagine that in the next few years, we will come together again to celebrate not four but 40 leaders, receiving awards for achieving control and elimination of diseases that too often have life-changing impact on men, women, and children around the world.
