Work

Blue Marble Health Redux: Neglected Tropical Diseases and Human Development in the Group of 20 (G20) Nations and Nigeria

Year: 2015

Type: editorial

Abstract: Updated information from the World Health Organization confirms that the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) exert an important and adverse impact on human development in the Group of 20 (G20). The NTDs represent a group of at least 17 chronic parasitic and related infections that com-prise the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest people. Recent information released by the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) confirms the high disease burden from NTDs worldwide. For example, the GBD 2010 found that the NTDs affect more than 1 billion people and were associated with 26.06 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [1], while GBD 2013 linked the NTDs to 142,400 deaths [2]. In the years following the launch of the Millennium Development Goals, the NTDs were originally conceived as infections mostly affecting the poor living in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the most impoverished countries [3]. While, indeed, the NTDs are ubiquitous in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a surprising number of these diseases are actually found among the poor living in wealthy countries, including the world’s wealthiest G20 coun-tries [4]. My previous analysis found that the largest number of cases of many of the world’s

Source: PLoS neglected tropical diseases

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003672

Author: Peter J. Hotez

Institutions: Baylor University, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Rice University

Language: English

Topic: Parasites and Host Interactions

Subfield: Parasitology

Field: Immunology and Microbiology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,670