We come to World Neglected Tropical Disease Day this year with a view of the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. In the shifting landscape of global health, where attention often follows the headlines and resources are concentrated on what is most visible, neglected tropical diseases have all too often been relegated to the margins. The result is a silent but consequential setback: redirected funding, reordered priorities, and decades of hard-won progress toward control, elimination, and eradication severely threatened.

In 2025 alone, 47 treatment campaigns were delayed following sudden donor withdrawals, including the suspension of US support and reductions among G7 countries. The consequences are far from abstract. At least 143 million people in endemic countries have been affected, disease control efforts have been disrupted, and diseases once thought to be under control have begun to threaten populations again. In a world as interconnected as ours, these setbacks do not stop at national borders; they spread, reminding us that even unintentional negligence has a cost we must all bear.

As countries strive to eliminate at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD) in 100 countries by 2030, the question is no longer whether elimination is possible. The real question is whether we can protect hard-won gains with the same rigor and determination that led to them. Reversing this setback and ensuring a NTD-free future requires targeted action on three fronts. This begins at the national level. It is crucial that policymakers integrate NTDs into national primary healthcare packages and ensure that budget allocations are reflected in national health financing. In a global economic context where African countries are facing increasing debt, judicious investments that promote disease elimination are essential.

However, progress cannot be sustained by governments alone. It depends on long-term partnerships. Philanthropic organizations and the private sector are essential to maintaining drug donation programs, which have enabled the distribution of over 30 billion treatments between 2011 and 2024. To remain effective, these programs require continued support and investment in innovation, both for diagnosis and treatment. For example, in Kenya, a new AI-powered app for cutaneous NTDs has shown promising preliminary results in the effective diagnosis of 12 cutaneous NTDs, with an average sensitivity of 80% compared to diagnoses provided by three board-certified dermatologists.

Furthermore, support for partners on the ground is essential and must be maintained. Organizations like Helen Keller International, with a strong field presence and experience in scaling up treatments in line with national priorities, play a vital role in advancing efforts to control and eliminate NTDs. Working in partnership with Ministries of Health and communities, Helen Keller International supports mass treatment campaigns, strengthens monitoring and evaluation to rigorously measure impact, and integrates disease prevention and treatment into routine care through existing national health systems.

More broadly, NGOs have contributed to the control of NTDs by providing surgical interventions for advanced cases of blindness and supporting the mass antibiotic treatment with azithromycin offered by Pfizer through the International Trachoma Initiative. In this context, Senegal launched an innovative pilot project that integrates the new pediatric formulation of praziquantel into routine vitamin A supplementation services, thereby expanding access to schistosomiasis treatment for preschool children (24 to 59 months) who have historically been excluded from preventive care.

However, all these efforts are undermined by a growing and cross-cutting threat: climate change. Climate change significantly increases the risk of vector-borne NTDs by expanding their geographic range, altering modes of transmission, exacerbating extreme weather events, facilitating the adaptation of vectors and pathogens, and severely straining public health systems. Multilateral institutions must urgently further integrate NTDs into One Health and climate resilience strategies, as well as the WHO Agreement on Pandemics, to ensure that we strengthen health systems and build resilience to future climate shocks.

NTDs remain one of the greatest, yet most surmountable, challenges to global health for underserved populations. Thanks to historic progress, by August 2025, 58 countries had eliminated at least one NTD. Take trachoma, for example: a bacterial eye infection and the leading infectious cause of blindness that, for more than a century, plagued communities in Senegal. On July 15, 2025, that story changed . The Government of Senegal, through the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, announced a landmark public health achievement: the World Health Organization had officially validated the elimination of trachoma as a national public health problem. This means that nearly 3 million people in the country are no longer at risk of suffering from this painful and potentially blinding eye infection.

This World NTD Day is a moment of truth. Without renewed commitment, the world risks undoing one of the most extraordinary public health achievements of recent decades. Eliminating NTDs is not just a challenge that can be overcome; it is a test of our global priorities and whether the progress made will be protected indefinitely.

 

Authors:   Thoko Elphick-Pooley , Deputy Director, Advocacy and Program Communications, Africa, Gates Foundation and Ndèye Astou Badiane , Country Director, Senegal, Hellen Keller Intl.