Neglected Tropical Diseases

Description

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) programs seek to eliminate NTDs, a group of parasitic, bacterial, and viral diseases that disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations. NTDs can often be debilitating, stigmatizing, and cause life-long disability. However, some are also preventable and treatable. USAID targets the most prevalent NTDs addressing elephantiasis, blinding trachoma, river blindness, snail fever, hookworm, and roundworm.

Use of Funds

Funds prioritize country-led, sustainable programming, such as mapping disease-endemic areas, delivering safe and effective medicines, strengthening surveillance, and advancing life-saving research. NTD funding helps distribute treatment and supports countries’ efforts to plan, implement, and finance efforts to end NTDs.

Justification

• Over 1.7 billion people are impacted by NTDs (1 in 5 people globally), resulting in blindness, malnutrition, and other widespread physical disabilities. Each year, approximately 185,000 people die of NTDs.
• USAID’s NTD program has leveraged more than $27.6 billion in donated medicines, giving 1.4 billion people access to NTD treatments.
• 10 USAID-supported countries have eliminated at least one NTD as a public health problem.
• According to USAID, “[n]ot addressing NTDs traps individuals and communities in poverty, undermines growth and development, and impairs progress towards achieving global health and development goals.”