Focus on neglected tropical diseases

World Health Organization (WHO) has called for renewed commitments and focused efforts to eliminate neglected tropical diseases such as kala azar, leprosy, yaws and lymphatic filariasis.

These diseases continue to disable, disfigure and kill people in the WHO South-East Asia Region, a press release said on Thursday.

"Though called neglected diseases, these are diseases of the people who are neglected, the poorest of the poor," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO South-East Asia.

"Strong political commitments and renewed and focused efforts centred around the affected population are needed to control, eliminate and eradicate these diseases," she told a meeting of health ministers and senior health ministry officials from 11 member countries in Dili, Timor-Leste.

Some of these neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are fatal if not treated. Others leave the affected population disfigured and disabled, leading to discrimination, high stigma and often social isolation, pushing them further into poverty, the release added.

Among the NTDs, though progress is being made against leprosy, the disease continues to be endemic in all countries of the region, which reported 1,55,000 cases, 73 percent of the global cases, in 2013, it said. 

Nearly 1,26,000 cases were reported from India. Six countries in the region -- India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka -- are amongst high burden leprosy countries in the world, reporting more than 1,000 new cases annually, it added.

The region alone accounted for 60 percent global leprosy disabilities in 2013, said the release.

As many as 60 million people in the region are infected with lymphatic filariasis which is half the global case count. About 700.9 million people in the region are at risk of lymphatic filariasis with the disease being endemic in nine countries, all except for Bhutan and North Korea, it added.

The WHO South-East Asia Region reports around 10,000 cases of kala azar every year.

Nearly 147 million people are at risk of kala azar with the disease being endemic in parts of Bangladesh, India and Nepal with sporadic cases reported from Bhutan and Thailand, according to the release.

Indonesia is one of the highest burden countries for yaws in the world.  Timor-Leste and Indonesia are the only two countries in the region reporting yaws cases, it said.