Yaws is one of a group of 17 neglected tropical diseases
(NTDs) that affect 1.5 billion people, among them the world's poorest. They
maim or blind people, are often debilitating and sometimes fatal.
"The NTDs are a huge global health priority, and that's
really motivated donors and endemic countries to pull together," Helen
Hamilton, NTD policy advisor at Sightsavers and chair of the UK Coalition
against NTDs said in an interview.
Because most NTDs affect only certain geographical areas,
experts say that given the right resources many of them can cease to be a
public health risk. Of the 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm infections a decade
ago, for instance, there are now just 120 cases globally, showing just how
close the world is to eradicating it.
Yaws affects mainly children and causes unsightly skin
ulcers and painful bone infections that can make walking difficult. In some
rare cases it can eat away people's noses. At least 50 million people were
affected by the bacterial infection in the 1950s. When the WHO launched mass
treatment campaigns with penicillin vaccines, the number of cases plummeted by
95 percent by the end of the 1960s, according to David Mabey, an expert in yaws
and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "But
then it fell off the agenda.” Yaws is known to be prevalent in 12 countries in
areas where people have little access to healthcare, mainly in West and Central
Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
It should be easy to eradicate, because scientists have
found that a single dose of the relatively cheap drug azithromycin, given
orally, is as effective as the penicillin injections of old. Not enough money
is spent on getting drugs and tools to the people who need them, David
Molyneux, professor at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said in an
interview. Less than 1 percent of official international development aid for
health is spent on NTDs, Molyneux said. Malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS attract
much of the funds. Bednets, insecticides and free or very cheap drugs can help
curb many of the diseases. "We're dealing with something here where ... we
can have a profound health impact with very cheap tools," he said.
The global health community needs an estimated $750 million
annually to meet the World Health Organization’s 2020 road map for the
preventive treatment and care of neglected tropical diseases. It is relatively
cheap, when compared with the billions of dollars needed to address other
health issues like HIV and AIDS, to which U.S. President Barack Obama allocated
$6.2 billion under his 2015 budget request.
According to Dirk Engels, head of WHO’s NTD department. In
fact, he said, there’s currently just about $300 million in foreign aid funding
available to tackle these diseases — not even half of the required sum. And
given the current financial climate, especially in traditional donor countries,
Engels, who is also the lead author of a new WHO report on NTDs, isn’t so
optimistic that foreign aid can bridge that gap. Ebola has shown that when
there is real urgency, something can be done (by foreign donors and
pharmaceutical companies)," he said. "But it's also shown that maybe
we shouldn't wait until it is urgent." Critically needed interventions are
often sidelined as donors focus too much on the end result. Intestinal worm
infection is an example. A chronic problem in poor countries, particularly in
areas where there are poor sanitation practices and facilities, intestinal worm
infection can easily be cured by taking the right medicine. WHO made it a
target to reach at least 75 percent of poor schoolchildren with this pill by
2010, and yet, five years past the target and with 600 million deworming
tablets available for free, only 300 million are being delivered and just 30
percent of the estimated target population being reached.
The drug company Merck, for example, has for 25 years been
donating for free a drug, ivermectin, to treat Africans against the parasitic
worms that cause elephantiasis and river blindness (the drug is mostly sold in
the West for treating canine heartworm infections). “Most firms were willing to
donate the drugs but they didn’t want to be on the hook for anything else,” Julie
Jacobson, a physician and program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation said. The drug companies agreed to get the donated meds to the
countries but other needs such as coordinating the donations in country,
incorporating them effectively into broader health programs, monitoring for
safety and compliance and so on were to be the responsibility of others.
YLDs – years lived with a disability YLLs – years of life lost |
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