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Ending the neglect: The role of partnerships in eliminating neglected tropical diseases
According to figures mentioned in a recent Guardian article, in 2019 alone, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) killed more than 80,000 people and caused the loss of more than 18m disability-adjusted life years (a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health). Unfortunately, NTDs are still very much neglected and are now being referred to as the other pandemic, in the context of COVID-19.
To draw awareness to this issue and to discuss the role of public-private partnerships in eliminating NTDs, Lygature Senior Program Manager and Global Health Portfolio lead, Dr. Kristina Orrling, took part in a live interview with Public Health in Real Life on Saturday 17 April. If you missed it, a recording of the interview is now available on YouTube.
As Kristina has pointed out, “COVID-19 has shown how important it is to forge partnerships in global health. The pandemic has been a hard awakening for a lot of people as to how important it is to tackle infectious diseases in a timely and collaborative manner. It has made people aware of how their personal health is influenced by health care decisions made in a completely different part of the world. It has also increased the awareness and knowledge of diagnostic and treatment development and distribution.”
If anything positive should come of the coronavirus crisis, it will hopefully be a lesson learned for the future when it comes to tackling the burden of oft-forgotten diseases like NTDs.