Remembering the NTDs on “Public Health Thank You Day”
By Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Hotez is the President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also Baker Institute Fellow in Disease and Poverty at Rice University, and University Professor at Baylor University, all located in the state of Texas.
In honor of Public Health Thank You Day, Dr. Hotez sits down to talk about his work on neglected tropical diseases and their importance in global public health initiatives:
The neglected tropical diseases – the “NTDs” – are a group of tropical infections that disproportionately plague the world’s poorest people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. I used to refer to the NTDs as “the most important diseases you have never heard” until Ebola virus infection became a household name.
But Ebola virus infection is not even close to being the world’s most common NTD. Today, every single person living in extreme poverty suffers from at least one NTD. Many, like Ebola, are killer diseases such as African sleeping sickness and kala-azar. Indeed these NTDs killed hundreds of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa during the last half of the 20th century, most of them like today’s Ebola victims who live amidst conflict or in post-conflict countries and regions.
Still other NTDs are chronic and debilitating conditions such as hookworm, schistosomiasis, elephantiasis, river blindness and trachoma that thwart economic development because of their ability to damage agricultural workers and growing children, or adversely affect pregnancies and women’s health.
In the years following the launch of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, the global public health community began waking up to the importance of NTDs and opportunities to control or eliminate them. A major approach has been to simultaneously target intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, elephantiasis, river blindness, and trachoma, with partial or complete so-called “rapid impact packages” of medicines administered once or twice yearly. The World Health Organization sometimes refers to this approach as preventive chemotherapy. Preventive chemotherapy is highly cost-effective in part because the major pharmaceutical companies are generously donating essential NTD medicines for these diseases and because they have a great safety profile and can be administered by community health workers or even school teachers. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently announced that more than one billion people have received these medicines through their support, while the British Department for International Development (DFID) has also provided large scale funding as well as the private END (Ending Neglected Disease) Fund. Our Global Network for NTDs is simultaneously providing strategically placed advocacy to promote NTD awareness and support for other European nations, and some of the BRICS countries.
In parallel, there is an urgent need to conduct research and development (R&D) for new NTD drugs, diagnostics and vaccines. We have seen the horrible consequences of not investing in these products for West Africa. As a result we face serious delays in getting new Ebola virus drugs and vaccines to the people who desperately need them. But Ebola is not alone: Our Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, based at the National School of Tropical Medicine of Baylor College of Medicine has a portfolio of new vaccines to combat several other NTDs including hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and West Nile virus infection. We have been successful at early stage development for these new vaccines, but like the Ebola virus vaccine problem we need to refine and improve the roadmap and business model for rapidly accelerating their final product and development and licensure. We have started to work with the US State Department to see whether we might enlist key research enterprises of foreign governments to partner with us in order to advance such vaccines – a concept I refer to as “vaccine diplomacy”.
We have a long way to go. Preventive chemotherapy is still reaching less than 50 percent of vulnerable populations who deserve access to essential NTD medicines, while R&D for new NTD vaccines and drugs is mostly at a nascent stage. In West Africa this fall of 2014 we have seen the dramatic consequences of doing nothing for NTD threats such as Ebola. It is an especially tragic situation that we do not have anti-Ebola virus vaccines stockpiled and ready to roll out even though the technology has been available for at least a decade in some instances. My hope is that the humanitarian crisis created by possibly not having an Ebola vaccine in time for this 2014-15 epidemic might reignite the global public health and scientific community to rethink the strategic and economic importance of new NTD products.
On November 24, Research!America and public health organizations and advocates will celebrate Public Health Thank You Day, a chance to recognize public health professionals who work round-the-clock to protect the health of all Americans. To learn more, visit www.publichealththankyouday.org.
A First Glimpse of the “Armadillo’s Ears”
By Peter J. Hotez
An excerpt of a blog post by Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, published in The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) blog. Peter Hotez, MD, PhD is the founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of the Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine (Research!America member) where he is also chief of a new Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine and the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. Hotez is the president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and the Baker Institute Fellow in Disease and Poverty at Rice University.
Dr. Peter Hotez
Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine.
The National School of Tropical Medicine, launched at Baylor College of Medicine in 2011, was established to offer a potent North American colleague to the century-old British tropical medicine schools in London and Liverpool and tropical disease institutes in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Basel, Hamburg, and elsewhere in Europe.
An essential cornerstone of the National School is translational research and development, with several core faculty members actively engaged in developing new diagnostics and vaccines for the 17 major diseases of poverty known as the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The NTDs represent a group of parasitic and related infections that actually cause poverty because of their long-term and disabling effects on childhood cognition and physical fitness and development, adult productive capacity, and the health of girls and women. They are the most common afflictions of the extremely poor in developing countries. Continue reading →
Neglected Tropical Diseases: Topic of Capitol Hill Briefing/Meetings
On June 17, Research!America hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on neglected tropical diseases in partnership with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Research!America also led a series of Hill meetings last week with influential congressional offices to discuss some of the successes of USAID’s NTD program and to highlight the need for continued investments. USAID’s NTD program – which was authorized by Congress in 2006 – has helped to deliver more than 580 million treatments to approximately 260 million people through mass drug administration campaigns. We were joined by Georgetown University, Baylor College of Medicine, the Global Network for NTDs, IMA World Health and the Latin America Society for Chagas (LASOCHA). The group – which represented a broad range of partners from organizations that implement USAID NTD programs to patient advocates to leading NTD expert, Dr. Peter Hotez – discussed the importance of the USAID NTD program to their work and updated staffers on emerging issues in NTD prevention and treatment. Continue reading →
Expanding U.S. Commitments to World’s Most Neglected Patients
NTDs briefing
On Monday, June 17, Research!America hosted a Hill briefing, “The Role of the U.S. Government and the Case for Scaling Up Treatment and Accelerating Innovation for the World’s Most Neglected Patients.” The event was sponsored by Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Karen Bass (D-CA) and hosted in partnership with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Kaitlin Christenson of GHTC served as the event’s moderator. Other panelists included DNDi’s Rachel Cohen; Brian D’Cruz, MD, of Doctors Without Borders; and Laurence Buxbaum, MD, PhD, of the Philadelphia Research and Educational Foundation.
The event began with a video from MSF that drew attention to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and the world’s most neglected patients that suffer from them. A panel discussion followed and Brian D’Cruz shared his personal experiences treating patients with NTDs in rural parts of Africa. He spoke of the difficulties in using current tools to treat patients, particularly in trying to perform procedures like spinal taps in communities with no sanitation or running water systems. In addition to the logistical difficulties, some of the existing drugs can be toxic or lead to extreme side effects that discourage patients from finishing their treatments. To cure these diseases and provide the best quality of care to neglected patients, new tools must be developed. Continue reading →
Research!America Hosts NTD Forum at Tulane University
On May 15, Research!America hosted a forum, “Neglected Tropical Disease Research in Louisiana: Saving Lives and Creating Jobs.” The forum, featuring leading NTD experts from the region, was held at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.
Pierre Buekens, MD, PhD, dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, addresses forum attendees.
Pierre Buekens, MD, PhD, dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, made opening remarks. He set the scene for the day, reminding us that there is a false divide between global and domestic health. Dr. Buekens pointed out that borders don’t matter when we share climates and that NTDs can affect people in all corners of world, including New Orleans. He argued that the US is not doing enough to address the threat of NTDs and said that it is “really time to wake up, we really can’t tell other countries what to do if we don’t address it at home.”
The first panel focused on NTDs and NTD research in the U.S. and Louisiana in particular. The panel was moderated by Dean Buekens and featured the following panelists: Patricia Dorn, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences at Loyola University New Orleans; John B. Malone, DVM, PhD, Professor of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University; Raoult C. Ratard, MD, State Epidemiologist at the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and Dawn Wesson, MS, PhD, Associate Professor of Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. Continue reading →
Research!America and Global Health Experts Focus on the Economic and Health Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases in the U.S.
Leading researchers discuss emerging health threats at panel discussion
During a panel discussion today at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, hosted by Research!America, several researchers and leading public health experts said the nation must increase public awareness and research to address the emergence of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the U.S.
NTDs, commonly associated with the developing world, have recently been identified in many parts of the country including Louisiana. Factors such as increased globalization, trade, migration, urban sprawl or climate change have been cited as potential underlying causes for the emergence of NTDs in the U.S. Chagas disease, which can cause heart failure, affects more than 300,000 people across the nation and costs the U.S. an estimated $1 billion in health care and lost productivity each year. Researchers at Loyola University New Orleans identified the first locally acquired case of Chagas disease in Louisiana. Continue reading →
Member Spotlight: The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Karen Goraleski
By ASTMH Executive Director Karen A. Goraleski
The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene is an international organization comprised of scientists, clinicians and program professionals who work to promote global health through the prevention and control of infectious diseases. ASTMH recognizes that global health is America’s health and America’s health is global health. It is vitally important for the broad research community – from basic through implementation and evaluation – to actively support a vibrant and innovative research enterprise. Everyone benefits from a strong U.S. investment in research. Continue reading →
Neglected Tropical Diseases hit closer to home
Based on their name, you might think that neglected “tropical” diseases (NTDs) aren’t something American physicians would encounter often. While that may have been true in the past, there is a growing threat of tropical illnesses spreading through the U.S. Many factors may contribute to the rise in incidence, but the bottom line is a very real health threat that the American medical community may not be prepared to face.
Take the story of Maira Gutierrez, for example. A resident of the U.S. for over 30 years, she found out she was infected with Chagas, a neglected tropical disease, after she donated blood. For years, no medical professional could provide more than cursory information about her disease, nor prescribe a treatment. Just like her diagnosis, she felt “neglected” by the medical community. Gutierrez and other patients will be featured in a video as part of our upcoming Neglected Tropical Diseases Forum at Tulane University in Louisiana on May 15. Continue reading →
Health and Economic Returns on Science and Innovation Investments for Global Health
by Morgan McCloskey, Global Health Intern and Ellie Dehoney, Vice President of Policy and Programs at Research!America. This entry was originally posted as a guest contribution to the USAID IMPACT Blog.
Doctor prepares malaria treatment. Photo credit: IMAD
In the past decade, U.S. investments in science, technology and innovation have led to critical breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of deadly global diseases. We now have a meningitis vaccine for African populations, a new test that can quickly diagnose drug-resistant TB and promising data indicating that a vaccine could prevent HIV infection. We have developed desperately needed new drugs for neglected diseases and have determined pathways to expand access to treatment for millions through programs like PEPFAR and USAID’s Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) program. Continue reading →
NTD Highlights of the Week: April 4th
END7 recently released the above video aimed at raising the profile of neglected tropical diseases. END7 is a Global Network campaign which raises money to increase access to NTD treatments and strives to end seven of the most common NTDs by 2020. NTDs affect millions each year, so it is extremely important to increase awareness of these diseases among the public and major political and philanthropic leaders.
In addition to the seven NTDs targeted by the campaign, it is critical that momentum continue to build around research and control efforts for other NTDs such as Chagas, dengue and leishmaniasis. Nature recently published results from a leishmaniasis study in Nepal, which indicated that leishmaniasis drugs are not effective in one-fifth of patients. Although the study doesn’t cite a particular reason for the drug failures, many suspect that the disease is becoming resistant to the most commonly used medication. With treatment failure rates up to an alarming 70% in areas of India and Brazil, drug resistant leishmaniasis is an increasing global concern. In addition, NTDs are on the rise here at home. Texas news outlets reported that 60-80% of animals in southern parts of the state are infected with Chagas, and experts warn that the overall risk of infection has increased. Florida officials have also confirmed that dengue has officially re-established itself in the state.
Despite these challenges, progress is being made in the fight against NTDs. Inviragen, a vaccine research organization based in Colorado, recently began Phase II clinical trials for its dengue vaccine candidate. The vaccine was well tolerated in the first phase of clinical trials and experts hope that Phase II will prove its efficacy and safety in young children.
March 22 is World Water Day
Nearly 11% of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water. This represents a tremendous burden on global health, as almost 2 million children die from water-borne illnesses each year. Improvements in sanitation and the availability of clean water are essential to improve health around the world.
America has been a leader in clean water legislation and water-borne disease research. The late Paul G. Rogers, Research!America’s former chair, was a key leader in the passage of environmental legislation, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, during his tenure in Congress. Today, American investment in research is providing new therapies and prevention strategies for water-borne illnesses like schistosomiasis and Guinea worm disease, both neglected tropical diseases. Learn more about neglected tropical diseases here.
Here are some interesting facts for World Water Day 2013:
- Did you know that agriculture accounts for roughly 80%of the world’s water consumption?
- For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, an average of $4 is returned in increased productivity. (Source: WHO, Geneva, 2012: page 4)
- Every year, around 60 million children in the developing world are born into households without access to sanitation. (UN Water)
- 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases.
Visit UN Water’s World Water Day site or see a list of UNICEF partner organizations to learn more about water, sanitation and hygiene issues around the world.
Research!America Hosts NTD Panel at CUGH Conference
Did you know that neglected tropical diseases such as dengue, Chagas and hookworm affect over 1.4 billion people worldwide, including individuals here in the U.S.? To discuss the global burden of NTDs and how federal funding and policy decisions impact the research and development of tools to combat these diseases around the world, Research!America will be hosting a panel at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference*. The panel, “Are NTDs a Growing Threat? Research, Access and Next Steps,” will be held on Thursday, March 14 at 1:30 p.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
The conversation will be moderated by Karen Goraleski, Executive Director of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) and will feature the following panelists: Rachel Cohen, Regional Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi); Brian D’Cruz, Emergency Physician with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières North America; LeAnne Fox, Medical Officer and Team Lead on NTDs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Kristy Murray, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and Mark Rosenberg, President and CEO of the Task Force for Global Health.
*Please note that attendance at the CUGH conference requires registration fees. For more information, please visit the conference website here.
