Global health policy and neglected tropical diseases: Then, now, and in the years to come

Abstract

In the year 2000, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by the United Nations and its member states Even though health aspects that mostly affect the poor were explicitly included in the MDGs (goals 4, 5, and 6), many stakeholders felt that important conditions were not adequately represented or were unjustly omitted Among the anonymous "other diseases" mentioned in MDG 6 was a cluster of diseases that became known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Their omission was a call to arms for the NTD stakeholders and a stimulus to join forces to gain critical mass. Key arguments were the considerable geographical overlap of NTDs, the commonness of co-infections related to shared risk factors, their poverty-driven and poverty-promoting characteristics, and potential synergies in fighting them. The little resources devoted to NTDs in relation to their burden and the availability of comparatively cheap options for treatment and prevention further encouraged the coordination of specific efforts to address the NTDs and to develop the NTD brand