

MSF calls for increased global investment ahead of World Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Day on 30 January 2023
As World Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Day approaches this 30 January 2023 with the theme of “Act now. Act together. Invest in neglected tropical diseases,” Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is demanding an improved global response to treat and control NTDs, including through increased global investment for the integration of care for NTDs into primary healthcare services and research and development into NTDs. With recent funding cuts, a general forsaking of NTDs, and disrupted health systems in the wake of COVID, there is a real concern that progress towards ending NTDs could be undermined.
“Over the past three decades, while treating neglected tropical diseases around the world, MSF has again and again witnessed the devastating impact they can have on peoples’ lives. This World Day dedicated to neglected diseases, we reiterate our call for an improved global response to the problem, as it’s past time to overcome the neglect and end the scourge of these diseases. The global community must urgently prioritise funding and investment in neglected diseases, with a particular focus on programmatic activities and implementation, so that there is better access to testing and safe, effective treatment and care for everyone affected by these diseases.” Julien Potet, Neglected Diseases Policy Advisor, MSF Access Campaign
NTDs are widespread, affecting over 1 billion people and killing hundreds of thousands of people each year. However, as NTDs mostly impact the world’s poorest people, these diseases are often overlooked by policymakers, and so very few resources are made available to address them.
MSF is often present and providing care to people with NTDs in areas affected by conflict and natural disasters where resources are scarce and health systems are fragile. Over the past 30 years, MSF teams have treated hundreds of thousands of people with some of the most overlooked NTDs, such as Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis), visceral leishmaniasis (VL or kala azar), and sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis) – all parasitic NTDs which affect impoverished people living in very remote and underserved areas. MSF not only helped identify new treatments and ways to diagnose people, but also played an active role in reducing the incidence of VL in African and Asian countries and sleeping sickness in African countries. In recent years, MSF has also integrated care for people affected by snakebite envenoming, noma, and cutaneous leishmaniasis. For more information on MSF’s medical evidence on NTDs, visit MSF’s Science Portal.
In June 2022, MSF joined public health actors and global leaders in signing the Kigali Declaration on NTDs, a high-level, political declaration aiming to ensure that these diseases are eradicated, eliminated or controlled by 2030. At the same time, MSF warned that the reduced funding for NTDs in the wake of the COVID pandemic could be devastating for people in low- and middle-income countries. Despite the commitments made at the Kigali Summit, there remains a real risk that NTDs will slide into further neglect due to a desperate lack of funding. MSF is therefore calling on policymakers, countries, and philanthropic actors to honour their existing commitments and increase these commitments to fund better integration into primary care and tools to find, diagnose, and treat more people with NTDs, and support the ambitious World Health Organization (WHO) NTD Roadmap which aims to greatly reduce NTDs by 2030.
In addition, as there are very limited functional NTD control activities in countries facing armed conflicts and other humanitarian situations, MSF is reiterating its commitment to offer diagnosis and treatment to people affected by NTDs in humanitarian settings where MSF can intervene, particularly to patients affected by life-threatening NTDs such as human African trypanosomiasis, VL and snakebite envenoming.
To read more on MSF’s work and medical evidence on NTDs, please see a curated collection of recent articles on MSF’s Science Portal here.