blog 5: Africa: Health Organization Aims to Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases

Africa: Health Organization Aims to Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases This article was about the health organization trying to eliminate neglected disease of poverty. This disease has affected more than one billion people worldwide. Thus is a major problem especially if the number is steady going up. This disease is caused by insect bites (mosquito, spiders, nets, etc.) and contaminated water. It’s also transmitted through human contact. I know this may be another major problem in poor countries because if someone the neglected tropical disease most will not know they have it and come and contact with other human beings and then they also spread the disease. Also in poor countries there are a lot of infected insects and a lot of contaminated water, so this causes the disease to be easily spread throughout the poor countries. Some have no signs of neglected tropical disease at first and some have major signs as soon as they come in contact with the disease. According to this article some sign of neglected tropical diseases infection causes abnormal swelling of body parts, severe pain and disability.Neglected tropical disease is very serious. Even our president has tried to reach out to help. He came up with the global health initiative (GHI) the GHI is to help women and children as well as the infectious disease according to (www. USAID.com) This article says the plan to reduce the neglected tropical disease is to develop a implantation strategy plan. I hope that whichever plan they chose to go with they chose wisely and move on with the solution quickly. The health organization states that they need $100 million to fight neglected tropical diseases this year. Since 2007 the funding for the disease has increased 30%. After treatment from the health organization to these poor countries has made the disease rate go down. From my understanding after reading the article it only takes drug treatment and insect nets to help stop and reduce the spread of this disease. This means that the people are too poor to afford simple treatment and nets to stop it. I feel sorry for the people in this situation, and I believe what the health organization is doing is great.  I wish we could raise enough money for a free clinic for them to get treated before the disease spreads. http://allafrica.com/stories/201202062255.html