Neglected Tropical Diseases

Description

Funding for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) seeks to eliminate NTDs, a group of parasitic and bacterial diseases that sicken, disable, or kill more than 1 billion people—or 1 out of 7 people—worldwide each year. Programming focuses on community-wide administration of safe and effective medicines, emphasizes drug administration, morbidity management, disability prevention, and research. It prioritizes supporting country-led, sustainable programming, which may include interventions such as mapping disease-endemic areas, delivering safe and effective medicines, strengthening surveillance, and research.

What does it buy?

NTD funding supports the distribution of treatments and supports countries in their efforts to plan, implement, and finance their efforts to end NTDs.

Why is it important?

• NTDs disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations. NTDs coexist with poverty because they thrive in places with limited access to clean water, sanitation, and protection from the carriers/transmitters of disease.
• Since its start in 2006, the NTD program has supported the distribution of 2.6 billion safe and effective treatments to more than 1.3 billion people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• Over 1 billion people worldwide suffer from one or more NTDs, which are responsible for approximately 185,000 deaths every year.
• U.S. investments leverage private sector donations. Every $1 invested from the U.S. government leverages $26 in donated medicines for mass treatment campaigns totaling $19 billion in value.

Why should Americans care?

• NTDs contribute to global poverty by impairing intellectual development in children, reducing school enrollment, and hindering economic productivity by limiting the ability of infected individuals to work.

What more could be done?

• An investment of $125 million would maximize the benefits of increased drug donations received from pharmaceutical companies to ensure that all countries supported by USAID’s program can reach a national scale. It would allow USAID to support five to seven countries where three to five NTDs are present, invest in new diagnostics to inform program operations, and provide 20 to 30 million more treatments in Africa by leveraging an estimated $1 billion more in drug donations.
• Additional investment would support much-needed research and development for new tools, including diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines for all NTDs.
• With additional money, the U.S. can broaden preventive drug treatments for seven of the most prevalent NTDs by using an integrated mass drug administration delivery strategy that could be delivered by trained non-health personnel.