Counting the cost of neglected diseases

They break out in remote places, causing billions in economic losses and deforming unknown numbers of the one billion people estimated to be affected, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report. They are known as “neglected tropical diseases”.

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Culprits that help spread the diseases include mosquitoes, snakes, muddied rivers, snails and crustaceans, but the most common vector is poverty, according to the WHO: dirty water, crowded slums and lack of medication hasten disease and death.

Here are highlights from the report on these overlooked, under-researched and under-funded diseases:

Neglected tropical diseases
1 billion	People affected by neglected tropical diseases
17	Diseases classified as neglected
55,000	Annual number of deaths from rabies
25 million hectares	Reclaimed land that had previously been abandoned due to damage from tsetse flies, which attack cattle and human nervous systems
670,000	Years of productive life lost or premature death caused by dengue, a flu-like fatal viral disease spread by mosquitoes
40%	Potential rise in personal income in Kenya through de-worming to prevent chronic intestinal blood loss and anaemia caused by hookworms
US$70,000	Cost of de-worming campaign for one million schoolchildren
$2.9 billion	Economic losses from trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes blindness
$1.3 billion	Annual productivity loss from lymphatic Filariasis, or elephantiasis, which can swell the lower limbs and genitals
5-10 US cents	Cost of treating a patient for elephantiasis
Source: "Working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases", WHO, 2010

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