Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of conditions1 caused by a variety of pathogens (including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and toxins) and associated with devastating health, social and economic consequences. NTDs are mainly prevalent among impoverished communities in tropical areas, although some have a much larger geographical distribution. It is estimated that NTDs affect more than 1 billion people, while the number of people requiring NTD interventions (both preventive and curative) is 1.6 billion. (source World Health Organisation https://www.who.int/health-topics/neglected-tropical-diseases#tab=tab_1)
Focus on Neglected Tropical Disease: Strongyloidiasis
Strongyloides stercoralis, a soil transmitted intestinal nematode infects 30–100 million people worldwide and although good treatment options exist for infection and control of this infection, S. stercoralis remains largely neglected. From a public health perspective, the estimated size of the population affected and “at risk “and its relationship to poverty and lack of adequate water and sanitation, puts strongyloidiasis squarely in the Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) camp. (Krolewiecki A, Nutman TB. Strongyloidiasis: A Neglected Tropical Disease. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2019 Mar;33(1):135-151. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2018.10.006. PMID: 30712758; PMCID: PMC6367705.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6367705/)
At the 2023 ASP Conference in Darwin, Strongyloides Australia invited speaker Dr Wendy Page (MBBS, FRACGP, FACRRM, MPH&TM, GCHPE, FACTM) gave her plenary talk about Strongyloides highlighting this most neglected of NTDs. Dr Page described how closing the health inequity gap on strongyloidiasis in endemically infected remote First Nations communities is possible.
Dr Wendy Page is a general practitioner who has worked for Aboriginal Controlled Health Organisations since 1986, and for Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation in northeast Arnhemland from 1993. In 1995, Rick Speare and Wayne Melrose travelled to Gove to teach parasitology as part of a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine through James Cook University. Of all the human helminths identified locally, Strongyloides stercoralis was the most clinically important for impacting on morbidity and mortality.
In September 2001, the First National Workshop on Strongyloidiasis was held in Gove, and dedicated to a senior Aboriginal Health Worker, a traditional owner, who passed away from disseminated strongyloidiasis. Wendy has been a founding member of the National Strongyloides Working Group, a special interest group of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine. This multidisciplinary group of committed members has grown to become Strongyloides Australia with the vision to eliminate strongyloidiasis from endemically infected Indigenous communities in Australia
In November 2020, Wendy was awarded 2021 Northern Territory Australian of the Year, increasing the opportunity to raise awareness of strategies to close the health inequity gap on this treatable and preventable chronic infectious disease, and to advocate for notifiable status.
Currently QIMR Berghofer researchers are leading an effort to eliminate strongyloidiasis, a potentially fatal disease caused by a parasitic worm. Listen to QIMR Berghofer BodyLab, where Professor Darren Gray and team member Dr Catherine Gordon discuss their new project tackling the condition, which has a devastating impact on some of Australia’s most vulnerable people.
The mission to eliminate a deadly parasitic worm disease endemic to Australia
On World Neglected Tropical Disease Day 2024, WHO is calling on everybody, including leaders and communities, to unite and act to address the inequalities that drive neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and to make bold, sustainable investments to free the estimated 1.62 billion people, in the world’s most vulnerable communities, from a vicious cycle of disease and poverty.
The purpose of World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day is to raise the profile of neglected tropical diseases, the suffering they cause and to garner support towards their control, elimination and eradication, in line with the programmatic targets set out in the NTD road map 2021−2030 and the commitments of the 2022 Kigali declaration on neglected tropical diseases.
#NTDs
Unite. Act. Eliminate.
Together we can improve the health and wellbeing of 1.62 billion people worldwide.
Your voice, your action, can change lives.
Neglected tropical diseases are preventable and treatable.
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-ntd-day/2024
