Neglected Tropical Diseases affect over a billion people worldwide, accounting for one-sixth of the world’s population. Individuals are frequently infected with many parasites or infections. At least five neglected tropical illnesses impact 100 percent of low-income nations at the same time. At least one neglected tropical illness affects 149 countries and territories around the world.

In developed economies, neglected tropical diseases such as elephantiasis, trachoma, river blindness, and intestinal worm infections are essentially non-existent. They are, nonetheless, the most prevalent infections among those living in extreme poverty. Their anguish might be severe. NTDs induce excruciating agony and long-term impairment, as well as societal humiliation. Infection disrupts education and promotes malnutrition in children, hindering their intellectual and cognitive development and stunting their growth. NTDs also keep people in poverty by interfering with education and employment.

Governments, nonprofit organizations, WHO, CDC, bilateral and private funders, and bilateral and private donors have achieved great progress in the fight against these diseases during the last two decades, utilizing exceptionally low-cost, cost-effective medicines. As a result, we are now closer than ever to defeating NTDs. But we’re not quite there yet. Now is the moment to redouble our efforts to tackle NTDs, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing even more people into poverty–and raising the danger of chronic sickness.

Despite the fact that NTDs claim approximately 17 million healthy years of life each year, they are generally preventable, and many can be treated with a few inexpensive medicines. Providing widespread access to these treatments would not only enhance people’s health and well-being, but would also yield surprisingly large and long-term social and economic advantages. NTD interventions are among the most cost-effective global health investments that countries can make, especially at a time when poverty is rising and disease is spreading. We must no longer overlook neglected tropical diseases in order to halt the plague of NTDs and safeguard the world’s poorest people.