MEDICAL
www.medicalchronicle.co.za
CHRONICLE
The Doctor’s Newspaper
MAY 2017
TROPICAL DISEASES
WINNING THE WAR
With an estimated 1bn people receiving treatment in 2015 alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports remarkable
achievements in tackling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
W
hile NTDs blind, maim,
disfigure and debilitate
hundreds of millions of
people in urban slums
and in the poorest parts of the world,
approximately 90% of all NTDs can
be treated with medicines that are
administered once or twice annually.
Following the release of the
WHO report, Integrating neglected
tropical diseases in global health and
development, last month at the Global
Partners’ Meeting on NTDs in Geneva,
this month the World Health Assembly
will review proposals for a new Global
vector control response.
The WHO report demonstrates
how strong political support,
generous donations of medicines, and
improvements in living conditions have
led to sustained expansion of disease
control programmes in countries where
these diseases are most prevalent.
“WHO has observed record-breaking
progress towards bringing ancient
scourges like sleeping sickness and
elephantiasis to their knees,” said
WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret
Chan. “Over the past 10 years, millions
of people have been rescued from
disability and poverty, thanks to one of
the most effective global partnerships
in modern public health”.
Since 2007, when a group of global
partners met to agree to tackle
NTDs together, a variety of local and
international partners have worked
alongside ministries of health in
endemic countries to deliver quality-
assured medicines, and provide people
with care and long-term management.
In 2012, partners endorsed a WHO
NTD roadmap, committing additional
support and resources to eliminating
10 of the most common NTDs.
cases in 1999 to well under 3000
cases in 2015
• Trachoma - the world’s leading
infectious cause of blindness - has
been eliminated as a public health
problem in Mexico, Morocco, and
Oman. More than 185 000 trachoma
patients had surgery for trichiasis
continued on page 5
Key achievements included in
the report:
• 1 billion people treated for at least
one neglected tropical disease in
2015 alone
• 556 million people received
preventive treatment for lymphatic
filariasis (elephantiasis)
• More than 114 million people
received treatment for
onchocerciasis (river blindness: 62%
of those requiring it
• Only 25 human cases of Guinea-
worm disease were reported in 2016,
putting eradication within reach
• Cases of human African
trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
have been reduced from 37 000 new
OSTEOPOROSIS
CPD
PAGE
31
➤➤ CONFIDENTIALITY IN A MEDICAL PRACTICE on page 18 | ED on page 22 | RESPIRATORY CPD on page 51