Neglected tropical diseases are afflictions that affect the world’s poor. They do not often receive attention from first-world nations. Developed nations typically ignore these diseases, which is why they are classified as neglected. The World Health Organization’s Expanded Special Project on the Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases has brought together 14 nations to bring an end to these afflictions once and for all. One of the countries involved in this initiative is Comoros. Many of the 14 nations have requested additional human resources, robust systems and technical capacity in order to increase NTD prevention. Attention, in particular, would go towards the ways in which they can research and combat multiple diseases at the same time as there are many different NTDs in Africa. Keep reading for more on these six facts about NTDs in Comoros.

6 Facts About NTDs in Comoros

1. The Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) has been infecting livestock in Comoros since 2009. A study found that livestock had the virus despite showing no physical signs. Mosquitoes that transfer infection from cattle to humans are the main spreaders of this illness. Comoros and other several other African countries also experienced outbreaks in 2007. One victim was a young Comorian boy with encephalitis, a kind of abnormal swelling of the brain caused by the virus.
2. With the advancement of pharmaceutical technology, the NTD crisis can be solved. Pharmaceutical companies have donated more than $4 billion a year in medicines to help nations recover from NTDs. In the last 10 years, the world saw several hundred million people previously affected by these diseases liberated. More research and advanced medical technology will undoubtedly solve this problem.
3. Comoros’ population have also been afflicted with an NTD known as elephantiasis, a mosquito-transmitted disease that preys upon the blood circulation system. This disease causes fever and, if left untreated, severe swelling of the lower limbs. Luckily, in the year 2017, treatment of this NTD was at 86 percent coverage from Universal Health Coverage (UHC), meaning the majority of people of Comoros had access to the services they need to treat this disease.
4. Intestinal worms, another NTD affecting Comoros, are parasitic disease-causing worms that multiply in the host’s intestines. The worms feed on the nutrients provided by whatever the host eats, thereby causing malnutrition in hosts. This disease spreads through human waste and unsanitary living conditions. UHC covered 73 percent of treatment for this disease in 2017.
5. The proportion of children in Comoros with leprosy in 2011 was around 38 percent. Leprosy is considered an NTD. It causes severe disfiguring of the skin and has been ravaging humankind since ancient times.
6. Since 2012, 600 million tablets of albendazole or mebendazole drugs to treat NTDs have been available every year to treat young children. Programs in countries where soil-transmitted helminthiasis, or parasitic worms, are endemic have already requested an additional 150 million tablets. These facts are signs of a positive increase in the health coverage of NTDs.

In recent years, NTDs in Comoros have harrowed the population with no end in sight. Since 2017, however, the World Health Organization and pharmaceutical companies have come together to end NTDs in Comoros and other countries once and for all.

– William Mendez
Photo: Flickr