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Defining Neglected Tropical Diseases Important Around the World

With the multitude of tropical diseases around the world, there is a select group of them that have been labeled as "neglected." About 1/6 of the world's population, almost 1 billion people, are afflicted with neglected diseases. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) earn their name because they occur in the poorest of poor areas in countries around the world whereas the surrounding areas as well as industrialized and wealthy countries never even see them.

These neglected diseases thrive on poor sanitation brought on by contaminated water sources due to poor waste management practices in addition to limited ability to access health care for treatment. These diseases, while debilitating and disfiguring, are not often seen because of the restricted rural areas in which they occur and are therefore on the low priority list for many worldwide health organizations which work to treat tropical diseases.

Fourteen tropical diseases make this neglected list and many of them can be prevented totally with proper preventative measures while one can be totally eradicated for good. Guinea worm disease, sleeping sickness, leprosy, onochocercias, trachoma, dengue fever, Chagas disease, Buruli ulcer disease, treponematoses diseases, lymphatic filariasis, trypanosomiasis, schistosomiasis, diarrheal diseases like cholera, helminthiasis and leishmaniasis are all the neglected diseases recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).

These neglected diseases are rather isolated because they sort of peter out if traveled outside of their region. For this reason, not much attention is brought to them and the reason why so many people are suffering from the diseases without proper health care. The fact of the matter is that with a little funding and medications, many of these diseases can be quickly identified and treated quite easily. Unfortunately, because some of the areas with these diseases are so remote, many people die before proper health care can be obtained.

The proliferation of insects, arthropods and other bugs also contribute greatly to the sustaining neglected tropical diseases. Because people infected do not always get the healthcare they need, these insects will always have a blood meal tainted with bacteria, parasites and viruses which can then be spread to other humans. Black flies, mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks and tsetse flies are the most common culprits that spread the disease.

The WHO has made it a priority to help with the treatment and eradication of these neglected diseases. By educating traveling teachers, medical workers, peace organization workers, military, missionaries and more who are most likely to visit these rural areas and arm them with drugs and the tools to treat the diseases, this could greatly reduce the number of cases that crop up each year.

In addition, teaching the local people in these rural areas about cleaning the water and providing them the tools to filter it, they can also cut down illness quite a bit with simple clean drinking water. While these poverty-stricken rural areas are not on most people's radar, they do exist and the world should help them. By empowering them through education about health care and giving the tools they need to succeed, the list of 14 neglected diseases could slowly dwindle to none. However, it takes a world effort to make this happen.