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We’ve all heard of the fight to combat malaria in mostly poor, tropical countries. But a whole host of other tropical diseases exist that leave their victims alive, but maimed. One is lymphatic filariasis, also know as elephantiasis. It causes limbs or sexual organs to become grossly enlarged. People can’t work or feed their families and often become social outcasts. Another one is called trachoma, or river blindness. A range of these so-called neglected tropical diseases affect about one billion people in the world.
But there’s some good news. Efforts by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and other agencies have nearly eliminated those two diseases in some developing countries. For lymphatic filariasis, patients receive a drug treatment for five years. This is known as preventative chemotherapy, and it effectively kills the parasite. In the case of trachoma, surgery and drug therapy are combined with improved access to sanitation. Morocco announced that trachoma has nearly disappeared there. These are success stories, but there’s much more to be done. Researchers are working on expanding these programs and on developing vaccines and treatments to eliminate neglected tropical diseases worldwide.
—Cynthia Graber
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Add CommentThis is excellent that SciAm is featuring the Neglected Tropical Diseases, which hopefully will contribute toward making them less neglected. However, I'd like to clarify a point that the podcast confuses. Trachoma is NOT "River Blindness". "River Blindness" is another name for Onchocerciasis. Both Trachoma and Oncho are among the 7 NTDs and both cause blindness, but their biology, epidemiology and control are quite different.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTrachoma is caused by variants of Chlamydia Tracomatis, which is a bacterium most famous as a sexually transmitted disease, but the Trachoma variants infect the eye and are spread by direct contact and by flies (not by sexual contact). It is especially prevalent in areas which lack clean water and good sanitation. Oncho is a nematode worm spread by Black Flies, which proliferate around rivers, hence the name "River Blindness".
Significant progress in combatting both diseases has been achieved in the past decade or two. However, like the other 5 NTDs, much more dramatic progress could be achieved if only a small fraction of the publicity and resources that have been invested in many other high profile diseases could be directed to the NTDs. I recommend a quick look at the home page of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, http://gnntdc.sabin.org/network/index.html