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Investments in Neglected Tropical Diseases: one of the Best Buys in Development

A new report by Uniting to Combat NTDs highlights dramatic health and economic benefits from investing in combating neglected tropical diseases, making it one of the best buys in development.

The report, entitled Country Leadership and Collaboration on Neglected Tropical Diseases and launched today in London, comes on the heels of increased attention to NTDs at the World Health Assembly and inclusion in the recent G7 Leaders’ Declaration. The report finds that countries are increasingly taking ownership of NTD programs, have started providing new funding and are pursuing innovative approaches to combat these devastating diseases. Yet while these new methods have produced substantial progress, further scale-up is necessary to reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2020 targets.

“It is encouraging to see increased state-level engagement and strong leadership towards ownership of national control programs,” said Dr. Dirk Engels, WHO Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “Sustained political commitment, innovative domestic financing and greater coordination can bring about game-changing treatments and care to millions of people and improve the prospects of achieving WHO’s goal of universal health coverage against NTDs.”

Country Leadership and Collaboration on Neglected Tropical Diseases is the third progress report since a diverse public-private coalition of partners endorsed the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs, committing to achieve the WHO’s 2020 targets for 10 NTDs: diseases of poverty that that affect one in six people worldwide.

NTDPrograms Provide an Enormous Return on Investment
NTDs keep children out of school, parents out of work, and cause stunting and impaired brain development, locking societies into endless cycles of poverty. According to the report, if countries achieve WHO’s 2020 targets, healthier citizens would generate an estimated US$623 billion in increased productivity between 2015 and 2030 – meaning that for each $US1 invested in NTD scale-up, endemic countries would see productivity gains of US$51 from 2015-2020 and US$184 for 2021-2030.

The report also shows for the first time the full burden of illness, disability, and deaths caused by NTDs, finding it at the same order of magnitude as the “Big Three” diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.-Press Release

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