Plans to fight neglected diseases in Africa
Thursday July 29th, 2010
Research on neglected tropical diseases has received a boost thanks to a new 850,000 Euro initiative based in Africa.
Neglected tropical diseases are a group of chronic and disabling infections that affect more than a billion people worldwide, mainly in Africa. People living in remote rural areas, urban slums or conflict zones are at greatest risk.
The African Fellowship Programme on Neglected Tropical Diseases say these tropical diseases are mostly unknown to the wider public and have also been neglected economically.
In addition to their negative impact on health, the diseases contribute to "an ongoing cycle of poverty and stigma that leaves people unable to work, go to school or participate in family and community life", say the experts.
Such diseases include bilharzia, elephantiasis, worms, diarrhoea and sleeping sickness.
This new initiative is a joint effort by five European foundations including the Nuffield Foundation. They identified neglected tropical disease control as "an untapped development opportunity to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest populations and make a direct impact on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals".
The initiative, "Neglected Communicable Tropical Diseases and Related Public Health Research", aims to strengthen research in Africa by increasing funding for research institutions.
Co-ordinator, Professor Bernhard Fleischer of the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, said: "It is still difficult for African scientists to enter an academic career and to develop their own projects in their countries of origin.
"This initiative makes it possible for them to conduct independent research in their own countries on a topic which is so vital to the African continent."
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