This new report details MSF's involvement with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) over the last three decades. Our work includes treating patients, carrying out operational research, supporting efforts to identify new treatments and diagnostics; and playing an active role in reducing the incidence of NTDs. We call for an improved global response to NTDs.
MSF has been providing direct care to patients with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) for more than thirty years, with a focus on the most deadly and overlooked diseases in this group of illnesses. In that time, hundreds of thousands of patients have been treated who otherwise may not have survived. Many had life-threatening parasitic infections such as kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis or VL), Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) or sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis). Some were affected by noma, a deadly bacterial disease so neglected that it is not yet recognised as an NTD. Others were the victims of snakebite envenoming, the medical condition resulting from a snakebite, which causes more death and disability than any other NTD.