Special Report

Neglected Tropical Diseases

Neglected tropical diseases affect more than a billion people. These diseases of the poor are notorious for their disabling symptoms. Progress has been slow, but the drug industry and communities are redoubling efforts to eliminate treatable conditions

© Poulomi Basu
Race to zero: India’s fight against elephantiasis

Household by household, person by person, an army of health workers is trying to rid India of an ancient and disfiguring disease

The road to elimination of neglected tropical diseases

Despite some progress, the fight is a long way from the finish

A guide to neglected tropical diseases

The World Health Organisation has selected 18 as good candidates to be controlled

Leprosy: India’s hidden plague

Funding and progress on treatment for the disease stalled, pushing those afflicted into a life of stigma and poverty

Syria’s ‘Aleppo boil’ spreads with refugees through the region

The country’s civil war has allowed the infamous disease to re-emerge, and even families that have fled have not escaped it

Poverty, open sewers and parasites: ‘America’s dirty shame’

Tropical parasites are thriving in the hot, humid US south, where the poorest areas face new healthcare budget cuts

More from this Special Report

Dr Margaret Chan: The tide is turning for neglected tropical diseases

The World Health Organisation’s director-general on why extra resources are vital in the fight against neglected tropical diseases

More engagement on NTDs needed from drugmakers

Pharma companies must share intellectual property to spur the development of new treatments

A mysterious leishmaniasis outbreak in Spain

The cause of an epidemic in a Madrid suburb mystified doctors, so they turned detective

Chagas disease: The Brazilian forest bites back

Bugs that lost their natural habitat through deforestation in the Amazon region are spreading disease in human settlements

Pioneering surgery on the plains of Western China

A world-leading programme in the region’s vast uplands is battling an epidemic of the parasitic disease echinococcosis

Snail fever: the threat in Suriname’s water

The last steps in fighting the ‘most deadly neglected tropical disease’ are being slowed by a lack of funding

Philanthropy: the search for the best way to give

One financier spent years looking for the most effective way to raise and spend funds

‘We didn’t know we would go blind’: fighting onchocerciasis in Ghana

Volunteers in remote areas are helping to bring the diseases under control, though millions of people remain at risk

Papua New Guinea struggles to eradicate yaws disease

A single tablet has been shown to treat yaws cheaply and effectively but drugs and funding are in short supply