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New Delhi : As we prepare to celebrate Valentine’s Day, it is our duty to raise awareness about neglected tropical diseases (Ndts). Over 1.45 billion people, according to the UN, need NDT intervention. NDTs have been found to have a disproportionate impact on and mortality rate among the poor and disadvantaged. Since awareness of this disease is low all over the world, I feel obligated to inform you of the daily devastation it causes to the world’s most defenceless peoples.
More than 170,000 people a year are impacted by NDTs and many become disabled or lose their lives. In addition to social isolation, depression, and even suicide, the most devastating effects of NDTs include deformed legs, blindness, a swollen neck, extremely swollen legs, and of course, excruciating pain.
Then, what exactly are NDTs? And what steps can we take to make an impact in the fight to end it forever? Several countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America suffer from NDTs.
It is widely accepted that NDTs are more common in tropical areas because of the lack of access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Leprosy, Dengue Fever, Guinea Worm Disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis (African Sleeping Sickness), Chagas Disease, Trachoma, and many more are just some of the lesser-known NDTs. The dynamic congestion of intolerable squalor, which allows the numerous causative pathogens to thrive, is caused, for example, by a lack of clean drinking water and functioning waste disposal systems. Victims fall prey to the resulting diseases because they lack the resources to effectively eradicate these pathogen breeding grounds.
It’s embarrassing that we’ve all let this continue, given the massive amounts of money being made every day in the developed world. To the people of the world, I appeal as a humanitarian, a peacemaker, and a catalyst for positive action: please help us get rid of this blight on humanity.
Because we all have the same two atoms of oxygen no matter where on Earth we happen to be, we are all God’s Creation, and the tentacles of our brotherhood and sisterhood should always remain boundless.
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