Neglected Diseases Overview

Certain preventable infectious diseases are neglected by media, governments, and health organizations.

Poverty, lack of attention and resources, and inadequate treatments and control programs exacerbate the impact of infectious diseases in the developing world:

• Visceral leishmaniasis is found in 62 countries.
• 80 percent of deaths from cervical cancer (caused by the human papillomavirus or HPV) are in poor countries.
• Flavivirus diseases, such as dengue and yellow fever, cause 19,000 deaths a year.
• 60 million Africans are at risk of infection from trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness.
• More than 2 billion people are infected with parasitic worms (helminths) that cause diseases such as hookworm, schistosomi-asis, and guinea worm.

Poor people and communities are hardest hit by these diseases.

People infected by these diseases seldom have access to early screening or care. They can also be sick for months, missing school or work, which can slow the development of already impoverished communities. Many people who are affected by these diseases have difficulty affording drugs for treatment; thus, pharmaceutical companies are not financially motivated to develop new drugs that are safe, effective, and affordable.

Some of the diseases have resisted efforts of control.

For example, with decreased environmental use of the insecticide DDT, the tsetse fly—which transmits sleeping sickness—has rebounded. Moreover, treatments are not always safe or effective and control efforts aren’t always coordinated.

Our goals are to prevent more people from getting these diseases; treat those who have been infected; and, in some cases, eradicate the disease.

Next: Our Approach

We invest our efforts where we determine that effective and affordable methods will treat and eliminate the effects of the disease, and, in some cases, eradicate the disease itself. Often, the best approach is a combination of strategies integrating prevention and treatment. Because few of these diseases are addressed or well funded, we’ve formed a network of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. We’re supporting the following strategies:

Improve diagnostics so that diseases can be detected early.

• We’re funding development of low-cost screening methods so that people with leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, or human papillomavirus can be identified before the disease progresses.
• We’re also helping conduct research to detect infections in the transmitting animals, such as flies.

Develop vaccines and drug treatments that are safe, effective, and affordable.

• We’re funding the development of a variety of vaccines to prevent trypanosomiasis, human papillomavirus, dengue, and Japanese encephalitis.
• We’re working to develop a drug to prevent reinfection after someone has been treated for hookworm.
• We’ve given a grant to the Infectious Disease Research Institute to develop a vaccine that would provide lifetime immunity from leishmaniasis.

Control the source of the disease.

• We’re working with affected countries to control sandflies (for leishmaniasis), mosquitoes (for dengue), and helminths (for guinea worm disease).
• In some cases, we’re funding research to come up with more effective methods of controlling the transmitting animals, such as the tsetse fly (for trypanosomiasis).

Eliminate the disease.

We’re making progress toward eliminating some diseases or reducing them to undetectable levels; for example, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, HPV, trypanosomiasis, trachoma, visceral leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, and rabies (the latter through vaccinating dog populations). When a disease is eliminated, surveillance and screening continue in order to be sure that the disease isn’t reintroduced.

Attempt to eradicate some diseases entirely.

We support efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, and cysticercosis.

Advocate for public support to address these neglected diseases.

We’re making the case that both rich and poor countries benefit from eradicating these diseases. Only by mustering the political will from other coun-tries can we hope to implement our strategies and attain our goals.