World NTD Day

Last updated

World NTD Day or World NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases) Day is an awareness day for addressing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). It is held on January 30th annually. [1] [2]

Contents

History

The first World NTD Day was on January 30, 2020. [3] [1]

January 30 is the anniversary of the landmark 2012 London Declaration on NTDs, which unified partners across sectors, countries and disease communities to push for greater investment and action on NTDs. [3]

2020 was a special year for the global health response to NTDs, with WHO announcing new goals during the year to guide progress against NTDs until 2030. [1]

Reem Al Hashimi announced the event on behalf of the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on November 19, 2019, at the Reach the Last Mile Forum. The UAE has invested significant sums in efforts to fight NTDs. [4]

On the third World NTD Day in 2022, the Kigali Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, a successor project of the London Declaration, was announced, and was officially launched by Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, [5] at the Kigali Summit on Malaria and NTDs. [6] [7]

Events

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Piot</span> Belgian microbiologist (born 1949)

Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helminthiasis</span> Any macroparasitic disease caused by helminths

Helminthiasis, also known as worm infection, is any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths. There are numerous species of these parasites, which are broadly classified into tapeworms, flukes, and roundworms. They often live in the gastrointestinal tract of their hosts, but they may also burrow into other organs, where they induce physiological damage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropical medicine</span> Interdisciplinary branch of medicine

Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global health</span> Health of populations in a global context

Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement, reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.

The soil-transmitted helminths are a group of intestinal parasites belonging to the phylum Nematoda that are transmitted primarily through contaminated soil. They are so called because they have a direct life cycle which requires no intermediate hosts or vectors, and the parasitic infection occurs through faecal contamination of soil, foodstuffs and water supplies. The adult forms are essentially parasites of humans, causing soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), but also infect domesticated mammals. The juveniles are the infective forms and they undergo tissue-migratory stages during which they invade vital organs such as lungs and liver. Thus the disease manifestations can be both local and systemic. The geohelminths together present an enormous infection burden on humanity, amounting to 135,000 deaths every year, and persistent infection of more than two billion people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative</span> Non-profit organization

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a collaborative, patients' needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development (R&D) organization that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, notably leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, malaria, filarial diseases, mycetoma, paediatric HIV, cryptococcal meningitis, hepatitis C, and dengue. DNDi's malaria activities were transferred to Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neglected tropical diseases</span> Diverse group of tropical infectious diseases which are common in developing countries

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and parasitic worms (helminths). These diseases are contrasted with the "big three" infectious diseases, which generally receive greater treatment and research funding. In sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of neglected tropical diseases as a group is comparable to that of malaria and tuberculosis. NTD co-infection can also make HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis more deadly.

The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) is a comprehensive regional and global research program of disease burden that assesses mortality and disability from major diseases, injuries, and risk factors. GBD is a collaboration of over 3600 researchers from 145 countries. Under principal investigator Christopher J.L. Murray, GBD is based in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eradication of infectious diseases</span> Elimination of a disease from all hosts

The eradication of infectious diseases is the reduction of the prevalence of an infectious disease in the global host population to zero.

Frederick Wabwire-Mangen is a Ugandan physician, public health specialist and medical researcher. Currently he is Professor of Epidemiology and Head of Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Makerere University School of Public Health. Wabwire-Mangen also serves as the Chairman of Council of Kampala International University and a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation’s Academic Alliance

The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia exists to raise global awareness about the deadly toll of the number 1 killer of children - pneumonia. Every year 155 million children under 5 get sick and 1.6 million lose their lives to pneumonia, more than all child deaths combined from AIDS, malaria and measles. Almost all of these child deaths occur in developing countries with most concentrated in just seven - India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation</span> Statistics institute for public health under the University of Washington, based in Seattle

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is a research institute working in the area of global health statistics and impact evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. The Institute is headed by Christopher J.L. Murray, a physician and health economist, and professor at the University of Washington Department of Global Health, which is part of the School of Medicine. IHME conducts research and trains scientists, policymakers, and the public in health metrics concepts, methods, and tools. Its mission includes judging the effectiveness and efficacy of health initiatives and national health systems. IHME also trains students at the post-baccalaureate and post-graduate levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alimuddin Zumla</span> British-Zambian physician

Sir Alimuddin Zumla,, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, and diseases of poverty. He is known for his leadership of infectious/tropical diseases research and capacity development activities. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to public health and protection from infectious disease. In 2012, he was awarded Zambia's highest civilian honour, the Order of the Grand Commander of Distinguished services - First Division. In 2023, for the sixth consecutive year, Zumla was recognised by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers. In 2021 Sir Zumla was elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences.

Himmatrao Saluba Bawaskar is an Indian physician from Mahad, Maharashtra. He is known for his research on treatment for scorpion stings. Much of his work has been published in the British medical journal The Lancet. He has also conducted research in the fields of snake bites, cardiovascular diseases, and hypothyroidism.

The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases was a collaborative disease eradication programme launched on 30 January 2012 in London. It was inspired by the World Health Organization roadmap to eradicate or prevent transmission for neglected tropical diseases by the year 2020. Officials from WHO, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's 13 leading pharmaceutical companies, and government representatives from US, UK, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania participated in a joint meeting at the Royal College of Physicians to launch this project. The meeting was spearheaded by Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, and Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Children Without Worms (CWW) is a program of the Task Force for Global Health and envisions a world in which all at-risk people, specifically targeting children, are healthy and free of worm infections (helminthiases) so they can develop to their full potential. To accomplish the vision of a worm-free world, CWW works closely with the World Health Organization, national Ministries of Health, nongovernmental organizations and private-public coalitions such as Uniting to Combat NTDs. It acts as an intermediary for the pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson in distributing the latter's mebendazole for mass deworming of children to reduce or end soil-transmitted helminthiasis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriol Mitjà</span> Catalan researcher

Oriol Mitjà i Villar is a Catalan-born Spanish researcher and consultant physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases with expertise in poverty-related tropical diseases. He has conducted research at the Lihir Medical Centre in Papua New Guinea since 2010 on new diagnostic and therapeutic tools to eradicate yaws. He was awarded the Princess of Girona Award in the scientific research category. Currently at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, Mitjà is conducting research on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and strategies to control the infection at a community level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jocalyn Clark</span>

Jocalyn Clark is a Canadian Public Health Scientist and the International Editor of The BMJ, with responsibility for strategy and internationalising the journal's content, contributors and coverage. From 2016 to 2022, Jocalyn was an Executive Editor at The Lancet, where she led the Commentary section, coordinated peer review, and edited and delivered collections of articles and Commissions on topics such as maternal and child health, oral health, migration, end of life care and gender equity. She led the Lancet's project to advance women in science, medicine, and global health, #LancetWomen. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and an Honorary Associate Professor at the Institute for Global Health at UCL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Molyneux</span> British parasitologist

David Hurst Molyneux CMG is a British parasitologist who served as the Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (1991–2000), where, as of 2018, he is an emeritus professor. He previously held the Chair of Biological Sciences at the University of Salford (1977–91), where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Science. His research and advocacy have focused on what are now known as neglected tropical diseases, and Michael Barrett credits him as among the earliest advocates of the campaign to focus international attention on this group of diseases in the early-to-mid 2000s.

The Kigali Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases is a global health project that aims to mobilise political and financial resources for the control and eradication of infectious diseases, the so-called neglected tropical diseases due to different parasitic infections. Launched by the Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases on 27 January 2022, it was the culmination and join commitment declared at the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) hosted by the Government of Rwanda at its capital city Kigali on 23 June 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "World Health Assembly adopts decision to recognize 30 January as World NTD Day". www.who.int. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  2. Hotez, Peter J.; Aksoy, Serap; Brindley, Paul J.; Kamhawi, Shaden (29 January 2020). "World neglected tropical diseases day". PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 14 (1): e0007999. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007999 . ISSN   1935-2735. PMC   6988912 . PMID   31995572.
  3. 1 2 The Lancet (December 2019). "2020: a crucial year for neglected tropical diseases". The Lancet. 394 (10215): 2126. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)33070-3 . PMID   31839179.
  4. "Reaching the Last Mile: First world tropical diseases day to highlight plight of millions suffering". The National . November 19, 2019.
  5. "The Kigali Declaration". Uniting to Combat NTDs. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  6. Burki, Talha (2022-07-02). "New declaration on neglected tropical diseases endorsed". Lancet. 400 (10345): 15. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01237-5. PMID   35780782. S2CID   250150750.
  7. Jesudason, Timothy (2022). "Global commitment to action on NTDs and malaria". The Lancet. 22 (9): 1285. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00539-4. ISSN   1474-4457. PMID   36029786. S2CID   251820451.