Neglected Tropical Diseases
The NTD Initiative
About the Neglected Tropical Disease Initiative
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| Source: Andrea Peterson |
More than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from one or more painful, debilitating tropical diseases, which disproportionately impact poor and rural populations, cause severe sickness and disability, compromise mental and physical development, contribute to childhood malnutrition, reduce school enrollment, and hinder economic productivity.
Seven of these neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) can be controlled and treated by providing safe and effective drug treatments to individuals in affected communities. This approach is called mass drug administration (MDA). Many of the NTD drugs are donated directly by pharmaceutical companies, and others are being purchased and donated to countries by various donors such as USAID.
Our History
USAID’s NTD control program began in 2006 in response to a Congressional earmark of $15 million per year. The program represents one of the first global efforts to integrate existing disease-specific treatment programs to control diseases. In fiscal year (FY) 2008, USAID’s NTD program worked in eight countries – Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Haiti, Sierra Leone, and Southern Sudan. In early FY09, the program expanded to Nepal, Bangladesh, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Making an Impact
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This highly successful program is making a large-scale, cost-effective contribution to the global effort to reduce the economic and epidemiological burden of NTDs. In its first year of implementation, it distributed more than 36 million treatments to more than 14 million people. In its second year, approximately 57 million treatments were delivered to more than 27 million people.
Building on the success of USAID’s NTD control program, in February 2008, former President Bush announced the new Neglected Tropical Disease Initiative and pledged to make available $350 million over five years to deliver integrated NTD treatment to 300 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, focusing on the seven NTDs that can be addressed through MDA.
This five-year initiative seeks to increase the United States' commitment to NTDs from its current $15 million per year, and will expand the targeted number of countries from 10 in 2008 to approximately 30 by 2013. USAID is preparing to rapidly scale up this integrated approach and has already expanded to 12 countries.
Targets
| Launch Year (2008) | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funding plan ($ millions) |
15 | 25 | 70 | 75 | 85 | 95 | 350 |
| Number of countries covered | 12 | 13 | 18 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 30 |
| Number of treatments delivered through integrated programs | 57 million |
75 million | 164 million | 179 million | 210 million | 295 million | Target: 1billion |
In recognition of the U.S. Government’s commitment to tackling these diseases of poverty, former President Bush’s announcement has been followed by several high-level commitments to NTDs:
- In Japan, the Group of Eight (G8) declared it would help control and eliminate several major NTDs by reaching at least 75 percent of people in the most affected countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
- In September, the U.K. announced a £50 million commitment over the next five years to fight NTDs.
- And, most recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new grant of $34 million to prevent and treat NTDs.
On May 5, 2009 President Obama announced a new comprehensive global health strategy to address some of the biggest global health challenges. Along with enhanced efforts to address child and maternal health and family planning, the President expressed strong support for tackling neglected tropical diseases. The President's 2010 budget focuses attention on these areas under a new Global Health Initiative. Read the President’s statement here.
Looking Ahead
To ensure the availability and affordability of the drugs that will be required for scale-up of integrated NTD control under the new initiative, USAID is actively engaged in negotiating and managing partnerships with pharmaceutical industry partners regarding NTD drug supply and demand forecasting.
With sustained action for three to five years, the integrated approach to controlling the seven targeted NTDs will enable a very significant reduction of the current burden with the elimination of some of these diseases. The approach represents an opportunity to attack a root cause of poverty that affects a significant proportion of the world’s population.
2008 Stakeholders Meeting on the NTD Initiative
In preparation for implementation of the Initiative, USAID convened a key stakeholders meeting on October 20-21, 2008 in Washington D.C. The meeting was co-hosted by USAID, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Participants included representatives from U.S. Government agencies, Ministries of Health of disease endemic countries, pharmaceutical partners, the NTD scientific community, NGO implementation partners, and other donor partners. View key documents and presentations from the meeting.