It’s the global health world’s ultimate goal: disease elimination. After the eradication of smallpox in 1979, the global health community set its sights on several other deadly diseases, including polio, TB, and malaria. Comprehensively beating diseases like these is a…
Journalist Léa Surugue does not mince words: “The antivenom field is, in short, a disaster.” Every year, some 100,000 people die from venomous snakebite. In 2017 WHO acknowledged venomous snakebite as a neglected tropical disease, and researchers are seeking new…
Later this month, Malawi will submit evidence to the WHO that it has eliminated lymphatic filariasis, meaning its prevalence has fallen below 1%. The parasite causes the debilitating, stigmatizing elephantiasis and excessive scrotal swelling in men—and in 2003 was endemic…
Black mamba. Mozambique spitting cobra. Puff adder. Living in the largely rural Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) means living among these notorious snakes, the country’s main perpetrators of snakebite envenoming, WHO reports.
It's well known that podoconiosis—a form of tropical lymphoedema caused by long-term exposure to volcanic soils—causes massive swelling in the lower limbs and intense stigma. But globally there’s little detailed data on the condition’s toll, which hinders much-needed…
The WHO's strategy aimed at halving deaths and disability by 2030 from snakebites—which kill up to 138,000 people and injure 400,000 each year—is taking shape. The snakebite envenoming roadmap, which will be launched in Geneva this May, centers on delivery of up to 3…
Treatment for the flesh-eating, bone-destroying disease mycetoma is long and expensive. Little is known its incidence and prevalence, and rapid diagnostic tests aren’t available for primary care clinics. For these reasons, 500 delegates gathered at a mycetoma conference…
Neglected tropical diseases affect almost 50% of Africa’s population. But how is the continent faring in the fight against the debilitating slate of diseases? A new “league table” tracking progress and setbacks is set to be presented at the African Union Summit in Ethiopia…
A new Nature Genetics study has revealed nearly a million genes in parasitic worms never before identified.
Neglected tropical diseases like waterborne Bilharzia, or Schistosomiasis, prey on Nigeria’s poor, rural communities—but the country’s ability to fight disease should not be underestimated, writes Mark Doyle.
