Ending NTDs

Together towards 2030

A partnership between WHO and RSTMH

The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a diverse set of 20 diseases with one thing in common: together they affect more than 1.5 billion people in the most neglected communities, with devastating health, social and economic consequences. Much progress has been made towards eliminating suffering caused by NTDs, since 2010 around 500 million fewer people are at risk. There is still much to be done to leave no one behind.

The WHO NTD road map, which was officially endorsed in November 2020, will offer a plan to accelerate progress with countries, communities and people at the centre. In this series of blogs, in partnership with WHO, we ask those who have been working on these diseases for some time to share their stories of success and achievement so far.

Although dogs in rural Africa are often free-roaming, most are owned and accessible for vaccination. Photo: Felix Lankester

Eliminating human rabies deaths

Rabies is devastating human disease that still kills tens of thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths occur in poor, rural communities of Asia and Africa and result from the inequalities that typify neglected diseases of poverty.

13 Jan 2021

Fighting NTDs in Burundi

Cross-sectoral collaboration and environmental control of transmission..

02 Nov 2020

NTDs and Mental Health

Emergence of mental health as a theme in the NTD field – from aspiration to impact

19 Oct 2020

Schistosomiasis – collaborate to eliminate

Schistosomiasis is a Neglected Tropical Disease of profound medical and veterinary importance across many parts of the world, with the greatest human burden within sub-Saharan Africa.

21 Sep 2020

Skin NTDs – threat or opportunity

The title “Neglected Tropical Diseases of the Skin or Skin NTDs” is a recent designation that encompasses a group of NTDs that share a common feature, namely that they present with lesions on the surface of the body.

07 Sep 2020

District-level management of preventive NTD treatment – a personal story

Much progress has been made towards eliminating suffering caused by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

10 Aug 2020

New faces for Leprosy - Shelemew, shoeshiner, photograph by Alexander Kumar

Leprosy – Continuing Challenges and A Hopeful Future

Accounts of leprosy can be found throughout history and people affected have often been stigmatised by their communities.

27 Jul 2020

Milking a Malayan krait of its venom with Jeremy Farrar and Trinh Xuan Kiem in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1996

International recognition of the public health importance of snakebite: an update on snakebite mortality in India

In the last few years, snakebite, once the most neglected tropical disease, has achieved a high international profile.

18 Jun 2020

My journey with Mycetoma

Mycetoma is a chronic granulomatous inflammatory disease, caused by certain fungi or bacteria.

01 Jun 2020

Guinea Worm: the last mile

Guinea worm (dracunculiasis) infection is classically acquired by humans following ingestion of infected water fleas (Cyclopidae: Cyclops and Mesocyclops) while drinking from surface water bodies.

04 May 2020

River blindness: A personal view

River Blindness (onchocerciasis) is a parasitic disease transmitted by the black fly. Unlike many other NTDs, it is not related to access to water and sanitation but simply to living close to a river where the flies breed.

01 Apr 2020