Neglected Tropical Diseases

The NTD Initiative

NTDs In the News

2009

• Ministry of Health and Helen Keller International Raise Awareness of NTDs in Sierra Leone and Acknowledge USAID Support – 6/30/09
  In a recent press event held in Kenema District, the Ministry of Health of Sierra Leone and Helen Keller International (HKI) sought to raise awareness of the importance of the country’s NTD Program among members of the media and communities affected by NTDs. Mr. Mustapha Sonnie, the program manager for HKI's USAID-funded NTD Control Program, acknowledged USAID support for the Sierra Leone NTD Program and identified the districts in the country that have the highest burden of NTDs. The event also focused attention on the burden of NTDs in schoolchildren. For example, recent data indicate that more than 50 percent of primary schoolchildren in Kono District are infected with schistosomiasis, one of the NTDs addressed by USAID’s NTD Control Initiative. Mass administration of the drugs praziquantal and mebendazole is currently under way to treat infected schoolchildren.
  
  
• NIH Unveils $24M Program To Help Develop Drugs For Rare, Neglected Diseases – 5/21/09
  The NIH on Wednesday announced the launch of a five-year program aimed at developing drugs for rare and neglected diseases that are often too financially risky for pharmaceutical companies to tackle.
  
  
• Ban Stresses Role of Philanthropy in Preventing Deaths from Child Birth, Tropical Diseases – 2/23/09
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the challenge faced by neglected tropical diseases that “afflict about one billion of the world’s poorest people. Yet these diseases are largely treatable.” Controlling these diseases offers a strategy for tackling many of the conditions that promote poverty, he said.
  
  
• Tropical Diseases Killing the World's Poor – 1/31/09
  This Washington Times article covers the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and discusses the USAID-funded Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program.
  
  
• Bill and Melinda Gates Announce New Support for NTDs – 1/30/09
  Bill and Melinda Gates announced a $34 million grant to help control and greatly reduce the burden of the most prevalent neglected diseases that affect the world’s poorest populations.
  
  
• Global Annual Program Statement Released – 1/16/09
  The NTD Control Program is pleased to announce the posting of a Global Annual Program Statement (APS) soliciting applications from eligible organizations for conducting NTD Control Programs in direct partnership with governments in the eligible countries identified in the APS.

2008

• DFID Announces £50 Million Commitment to Fight NTDs – 9/22/08
  As part of an international effort to eradicate Guinea worm, funding will help people in the five remaining countries in Africa that still have Guinea worm: South Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Niger, and Mali.