There is a saying that neglected diseases “begin where the road ends.” These diseases of poverty strike the most marginalized populations and strain to attract the resources, funding, and attention of a world that is saturated by increasingly convoluted problems.
Do you know an important global health story that’s been overlooked by the media and deserves special notice? NPR’s "Goats and Soda" blog, which covers global health and development, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH)and Global Health NOW from the …
African oral health are mounting a campaign to persuade the WHO to add the disease Noma to the list of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Noma (cancrum oris) is a gangrene that destroys the mouth’s mucus membranes and rapidly spreads to other parts of the face. The…
Ahmed Fahal (second from left) and other mycetoma researchers plot their next steps at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. GENEVA—By the time mycetoma—a terrifying and obscure tropical infection—reached the discussion floor of the World Health Assembly at the end of last…
GENEVA —This week at the World Health Assembly, delegates have been forced to consider an obscure flesh-eating infection called mycetoma because it may change the way the WHO does business.
GENEVA – More than 3,500 people from 194 member-states are attending this week’s World Health Assembly—the “biggest ever” according to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. The Assembly, which sets the policies for WHO, will take on 76 agenda items (with 1,…
This disease caused by flesh- and bone-destroying fungi afflicts unknown thousands of people, yet research funding is virtually nonexistent. It’s time for the global health community to jumpstart research and bring hope to victims. If some diseases are silent killers,…
After 30 years fighting a flesh-eating, bone-destroying disease, a Sudanese physician dares to hope for global assistance again. On May 21, Dr. Ahmed Fahal will fly anxiously from Khartoum, Sudan to Geneva, Switzerland for the annual World Health…
The path for mycetoma through the WHO Executive Board meeting 138 was not smooth. First, the discussion in Geneva was delayed for a day. And when the EB finally took it up on Thursday, high drama followed. The EB was considering a resolution by Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt to…
For too long, the flesh-eating, bone-destroying disease mycetoma has been overlooked by global health authorities. In fact, it’s so neglected that it’s not on WHO’s official list of neglected diseases.
