Here are over a dozen of the world’s “forgotten” diseases listed on WHO’s Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) website: Buruli Ulcer, Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis), Dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever, Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease), Fascioliasis, Human African trypanosomiasis, Leishmaniasis, Leprosy, Lymphatic filariasis, Neglected zoonoses, Onchocerciasis, Schistosomiasis, Soil transmitted helminthiasis, Trachoma and Yaws.
According to John Ehrenberg, of the Pan American Health Organization, these diseases are called “forgotten” diseases because “these are diseases that don't cause epidemiological emergencies and therefore aren't usually perceived as public health problems. This translates into less demand on the part of countries for important technical cooperation. It means they don't attract the attention of ministries of health or get on the agenda of important public health problems; that agenda is taken up by tuberculosis, dengue, malaria or HIV.”
As WHO’s Regional Office for South-east Asia wrote of yaws, it is aptly said that, “where the road ends, yaws begins”. This sentence, it seems, could summarise any of the above diseases.
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