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| [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Geneva: A report launched yesterday (16 January) by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in Geneva, showed that a new momentum in controlling,
eliminating and eradicating some of the longest-term scourges faced by
humankind that take their greatest toll among the poor, moving the world closer
to the elimination of many of them.
Dengue, leprosy, river blindness and guinea-worm disease are
among the 17 now targeted by a new global strategy, supported by worldwide
partners, that provides a steady supply of quality medications.
At a press briefing launching the report, Lorenzo Savioli,
Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at WHO
said that the report showed evidence that over 700 millions treatments were
delivered regularly, every year to people in need, to the poorest people in the
poorest section on the world.
According to the report, two diseases are targeted for
global eradication, dracunculiasis, or guinea-worm disease – which can produce
a parasite as long as two or three feet – by 2015, and yaws, which attacks
skin, bone and cartilage, by 2020.
Targets are set for the regional elimination of several other diseases
in 2015 and in 2020.
Saviolo said that
Africa - - in terms of individual more than one disease -- was
"by far" the continent where the numbers of people infected was the
highest. But in terms of numbers, Asia is where the burden of tropical diseases
was the highest.
In 2010 alone, 711 million people received treatment for at
least one of four target diseases, including lymphatic filariasis,
onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases, the report
said.
And when it comes to Dengue, Saviolo said that the disease
was "increasing globally", and that there was a significant spread
linked to climate change, as well as increasing transport around the world. He
added that "we see outbreaks of not just Dengue itself but also of such as
Arbovirus also in Europe".
Other targeted diseases include rabies, trachoma, buruli
ulcer, chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniases,
taenaisis/cysticercosis, echinococcosis/hydatidosis, foodborne trematodiases
and lymphatic filariasis, the WHO report said. -UNifeed