National malaria death rates are difficult to assess because reliably diagnosed malaria is likely to be cured, and deaths in the community from undiagnosed malaria could be misattributed in retrospective enquiries to other febrile causes of death, or vice-versa.
India continues to rank very high in the prevalence of neglected tropical diseases like dengue, rabies and soil-transmitted helminthiases, according to a report released by the World Health Organisation on Thursday.
The first WHO report presents evidence to demonstrate that activities undertaken to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases are producing results - and that achievements are being recognized.
In 2009, WHO brought together 24 experts to assess schemes and innovative proposals that could encourage much-needed research and development into drugs for neglected diseases. The final report by the Expert Working Group (EWG) was due to be rubber-stamped at the 63rd World Health Assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 17
Dar es Salaam has an extensive drain network, mostly with inadequate water flow, blocked by waste, causing flooding after rainfall. The presence of Anopheles and Culex larvae is common, which is likely to impact the transmission of lymphatic filariasis and malaria by the resulting adult mosquito populations. However, the importance of drains as larval habitats remains unknown.
This PLoS Medicine Debate examines the different approaches that can be taken to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Some commentators, like Jerry Spiegel and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, feel there has been too much focus on the biomedical mechanisms and drug development for NTDs, at the expense of attention to the social determinants of disease.
The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which affect the very poor, pose a major public health problem in the South-East Asia Region of the World Health Organization (WHO). Although more than a dozen NTDs affect the region, over the past five years four of them in particular
