INTERNATIONAL
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Interestingly, neglected tropical diseases
are also endemic among marginalized populations in the developed world. The Public
Library of Science writes, “wherever poverty is pervasive, even in otherwise wealthy
countries such as the United States, some
important parasitic and other infections are
endemic, and they cause significant adverse effects on maternal and child health.”
Cysticercosis, dengue, and Chagas disease
are now widespread in the U.S. among impoverished Hispanic populations; in some
cases these NTDs are as prevalent in the
United States as in poor regions of Latin
America. The prevalence rate of toxocariasis, a parasitic worm infection linked
to asthma and epilepsy, was recently estimated among African-Americans nationally at twenty one percent, compared with
a prevalence of thirty percent in Plateau
State, Nigeria. Though migration and globalization may have played an initial role
in the emergence of these diseases in the
United States, there is now strong evidence
for the transmission of these parasitic diseases within U.S. borders. Neglected tropical diseases have also been documented
among marginalized populations in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Both in the United States and worldwide, “the enormous impact of NTDs and
NIoPs [neglected infections of poverty] on
global health and economics is dramatically
disproportionate to the existence of NTD/
NIoP-specific research and educational opportunities,” reports the Baylor College of
Medicine. USAID and the World Health Organization, among other actors, have started
to direct some attention towards the problem, funding deworming efforts and the development of vaccines for some NTDs. For
most of the world’s bottom billion, almost
all of whom are currently infected by a disease which will cause significant disability,
these measures may be little consolation.
by the
NUMBERS
1.4
billion
age treatment-seeking. Neglected tropical
diseases also exacerbate the deleterious
effects of other diseases, such as HIV and
malaria. Female genital schistosomiasis
infection causes lesions which increases
the risk of HIV transmission threefold, for
example. Co-infection of hookworm and
malaria, a common occurrence in sub-Saharan Africa, can lead to severe anemia.
Anemia is especially acute for pregnant
women, who are three and a half times
more likely to die during childbirth than
pregnant women who are not anemic. This
risk is especially significant for pregnant
women in sub-Saharan Africa—a quarter
to a third of them are infected with hookworm. Pregnant women infected with
hookworm are also more likely to birth
low-birth weight babies and babies with
cognitive and developmental problems.
What’s more, neglected tropical diseases strike early on in life, inhibiting children from realizing their full potential. As
the World Health Organization reports,
“[children are the most vulnerable to these
diseases, which kill, impair or permanently disable millions of people every year,
often resulting in life-long physical pain
and social stigmatization.” For example,
three-quarters of school-aged children in
Rwanda suffer from a worm-transmitted
infection. Studies have attributed childhood infection with neglected tropical
diseases to increased school absenteeism,
significant cognitive deficits, reduced lifetime wages, and decreased literacy. In
fact, hookworm has been shown to reduce
future wage earning capacity in some affected areas by up to forty three percent.
Neglected tropical diseases thus create
a poverty trap among the world’s poorest; as one author explained, one “reason the poorest of the poor are trapped in
poverty is because the NTDs block their
ability to achieve their full mental and
physical capacity and live a normal life.”
VANDERBILT POLITICAL REVIEW
people are
infected by a
neglected
tropical disease
43
the percent of
future wage earnings
that are reduced in
an area with
prevelant hookworm
807
million
are affected with
roundworm
around the world