Tulane University

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) encompass a multitude of diseases including parasitic, viral and bacterial infections. NTDs differ from other tropical diseases, such as Malaria, because there is a significant absence of investment in active disease surveillance, lack of available healthcare services and a low involvement by local, state and federal public health agencies. NTDs disproportionately affect developing countries, where access to health care is poor. However, NTDs are also present in areas with high rates of poverty in the United States. NTDs can diminish quality of life and socioeconomic opportunities; as a result, these diseases reinforce the cycle of poverty among already disadvantaged populations.


Neglected Tropical Diseases

Hotez, P. J., Bottazzi, M. E., Dumonteil, E., & Buekens, P. (2015). The Gulf of Mexico: A “Hot Zone” for Neglected Tropical Diseases? PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003481

The Gulf of Mexico: A "Hot Zone" for Neglected Tropical Diseases?

The Gulf of Mexico is surrounded by the United States, Mexico and Cuba. All three of these countries contain populous urban centers such as Houston, Tampa, Havana, New Orleans and Veracruz as well as rural populations. The Gulf Coast suffers from a high prevalence of NTDs that affect native populations. This is attributed to socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, and environmental conditions. The warm, subtropical climate allows many of these pathogens to thrive. 


Gulf of Mexico

- International Cooperation
- Vector Control
- Research & Development 
- Tropical Medicine in the Gulf of Mexico Initiative (Trop-G)

Public Health Measures for Improvement

The current public health crisis has deployed resources to prevent further infection and to treat those that are infected. This has severely restricted available supplies and personnel thus disrupting other activities of the health sector, such as NTD elimination programs. Around the globe, NTD control programs have been postponed, pushing back mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns. Consequently, disease interventions that involve preventative chemotherapy are temporarily absent, causing certain NTDs to remain untreated.

Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on NTD Control & Prevention

Neglected tropical diseases disproportionately affect the world’s poorest populations or the “bottom billion”, a total 1.4 billion people living below the poverty level. These populations suffer from bacterial, protozoal, viral and helminthic infections which include chagas disease, hookworm, dengue fever and schistosomiasis. These diseases contribute to poverty as they adversely affect child cognitive development and worker productivity, thus promoting a generational cycle of poverty. Vaccines that target these childhood and neglected diseases are referred to as “Anti-Poverty Vaccines”. Although vaccine development that target childhood diseases have overcome efforts to combat NTDs, development and delivery of NTD vaccines have currently become financially incentivized. However, further stimulation of large pharmaceutical companies and vaccine distributors is needed to promote vaccine development for NTDs. 

Anti-Poverty Vaccines

Article Source: New global targets for NTDs in the WHO roadmap 2021–2030
Casulli A (2021) New global targets for NTDs in the WHO roadmap 2021–2030. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15(5): e0009373. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009373

New global targets for NTDs in the WHO roadmap 2021–2030

https://www.bcm.edu/departments/pediatrics/sections-divisions-centers/tropical-medicine/research/vaccine-development

Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development

Most of the neglected tropical diseases prioritized by the World Health Organization (WHO) are caused by helminths, highlighting these parasites as a major global public health concern.

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