10 facts about the most dangerous diseases you've never heard of

WHO's goal is to ensure the safe and availability of medicines and to target mosquitoes, flies and counters that transmit certain NTDs.

Medical experts warn that as the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic, resources are being pumped away from the fight against a range of devastating diseases that affect the 1.7 billion poorest people on the planet.

On Saturday, the charity will mark the World's Neglected Day of Tropical Diseases, working to draw attention to the various infectious diseases that still cause great suffering around the world, even though they can be prevented or cured.

These diseases include leprosy, Trypanosomiasis, intestinal worms, dengue and chikungunian disease, Guinea helminthiasis, scabies, trachoma and schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis, Java, river blindness and sleep disorders.

However, despite calls by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and late British physicist Stephen Hawking for the elimination of NTDs, they still affect more than 1.7 billion people worldwide.

Here are 10 key facts about neglected tropical diseases (NTDs):

1. Non-tariff barriers affect more than 1.7 billion people worldwide, causing thousands of preventable deaths each year. The number of people affected fell from 2 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2017.

These diseases are blind, disabling and disabling, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and keeping millions of children and adults from school.

2 . The number of NTDs increased from 17 in 2016 to 20, adding three new diseases: mycetoma, chromosomal transplantation and other deep myths; scabies and other exoplastic parasites; and snake head infections.

3. Non-tariff barriers occur mainly in the poor living in tropical and subtropical climates in Africa, Asia and South America.

4. These diseases affect people who do not have access to clean drinking water, sanitation and basic health services that are necessary to protect themselves from infection by bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. These communities include those in remote, rural, urban slums or conflict zones.

Scientists worry that if the climate continues to warm at its current rate, global warming could increase the number of people infected with mosquito viruses such as dengue and Zika virus by 1 billion by 2080.

6. High-income groups are rarely affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 70% of countries and territories that report NTBs are low- or low-middle-income economies.

7. Many NTBs are chronic, slow-moving, and the damage they cause if not detected and treated can be irreversible.

For example, a bacterial eye infection with trachoma can damage the eyelids, causing the eye hairs to turn inward, causing the eyeball to be painfully damaged. If not corrected by surgery, it can lead to irreversible vision loss and blindness.

8 . NTD can cause severe pain and lifelong disability, with long-term consequences for patients and their families.

People with NTD are often stigmatized and excluded from society, such as leprosy patients. In some countries, incubation periods persist and patients are excluded from society, often adversely affecting their mental health.

9.In 2012, WHO and Member States agreed on the first global roadmap aimed at eliminating or eliminating 17 types of non-tariff barriers.

Since then, three more diseases: dengue fever, rabies and snakehead infection have been defined as NTDS.

So far, 42 countries have eliminated at least one NTD.

WHO released its second 10-year plan on 28 January, which aims to eliminate one of the 20 recognized NTBs in at least 90 countries by 2030.

It also aims to guarantee the safety and availability of medicines and aims at mosquitoes, flies and counters that transmit certain NTDs, with a view to reducing the number of people needing treatment for these diseases by 90% over the next 10 years.

10. Health experts say efforts to alleviate NTD have been hampered by a global pandemic that is pushing an already strained health care system beyond its limits.

Who said in September that the outbreak had hit NTD programmes and countries had to pause large-scale treatment interventions and the detection of active cases, and delay diagnosis and treatment.

The group said key personnel have been redistributed to deal with COVID-19, with the manufacture, shipment and delivery of medicines disrupted, and warned that "the burden of NTD has increased".