The road map implementation report rightly notes the progress made against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). However, the decrease in the global burden of NTDs has been limited since 2015, and over 200,000 deaths are still caused annually by snakebite, leishmaniasis, dengue, schistosomiasis, rabies and noma.
UN Photo/Christopher Black
Interventions are not being scaled up because national NTD programmes are chronically underfinanced; there are no global financing initiatives for NTDs and domestic funding remains limited, particularly for newly recognised NTDs such as snakebite and noma.
Risk factors for NTDs — poverty, population displacement, climate change, and conflict — may worsen in the coming years. Médecins Sans Frontières therefore calls for stronger political will and additional resources to tackle NTDs in fragile contexts and to develop better NTD medicines and diagnostics tailored to resource-limited settings. Enhanced control of NTDs is needed to achieve universal health coverage.
