Published on 9.19.08
A “blueprint” for controlling and potentially eliminating the seven most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) afflicting the “poorest of the poor”—2.7 billion people living on less than $2 per day—has been published in the Sept. 6, 2007 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. The peer-reviewed article details an integrated control strategy established by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network). The Global Network is an alliance of leading organizations dedicated to reducing poverty and improving global health through tropical disease control. The NTD control and prevention strategy centers on mass treatment with a safe, effective and affordable “rapid impact package” comprised of four drugs, delivered at a cost of only 50 cents per person, per year—a fraction of the cost of antiviral treatment for HIV/AIDS and multidrug therapy for tuberculosis, according to the paper.
"This NTD control blueprint represents a historic assault on diseases of poverty in developing countries and will help catalyze international efforts to address the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations,” said lead author Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Professor and Chair of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine at George Washington University.
In addition to Dr. Hotez, the authors of the paper represent several founding organizations of the Global Network, including: David H. Molyneux, Ph.D., D.Sc., Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine); Alan Fenwick, Ph.D., Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (Imperial College of London); Sonia Erlich Sachs, M.D. and Jeffrey D. Sachs, Ph.D., Earth Institute at Columbia University; and Jacob Kumaresan, Ph.D., formerly of the International Trachoma Initiative.
"The Publication of this paper in The New England Journal of Medicine provides us with a tremendous platform to expand the global health dialogue on diseases of poverty from the ‘Big Three’ to the ‘Big Four,’ to include NTDs,” said Dr. Hotez. “Therefore, the Global Network is seizing this moment to call upon the world’s most economically advanced countries, the Group of Eight nations (G-8), to allocate the funding required to control and eliminate NTDs. The solution for NTDs is so inexpensive—just 50 cents per person, per year—which means you can treat a population of 500 million for approximately $250 million per year. The Global Network has developed the blueprint—now it’s the G-8’s turn to deliver the funding.
Funding of NTD control by the G-8—and by philanthropic donors—would help each of these nations meet their obligations under the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, according to the paper’s co-author, Professor Alan Fenwick, Ph.D., Director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative at Imperial College of London. The Millennium Declaration established eight goals to eliminate extreme poverty, hunger and disease by 2015. In particular, the sixth goal—“to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”—addresses the health and economic impact of infectious diseases. “In my view, NTDs top the list of other diseases,” said Dr. Fenwick. “NTD control will allow current victims to enjoy healthier and more productive lives. It also will enable us to develop a new generation of treatment and prevention tools, including drugs and vaccines, that will spare future generations from the misery and suffering caused by NTDs.”
