The Seven Most Common NTDs

Neglected tropical diseases are the most common afflictions of the world's poorest people--those who subsist on less than $1.25 per day. These diseases promote poverty, stigmatize, disable and inhibit individuals from being able to care for themselves or their families.

Ascariasis

Ascariasis, also known as roundworm, is an intestinal infection caused by the parasitic worm Ascaris lumbricoides, and is part of a family of parasites known as the soil-transmitted helminths.

Hookworm

Hookworm is an intestinal parasite most commonly found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide, particularly in Africa and Latin America.

Lymphatic Filariasis

Lymphatic Filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, affects more than 120 million people in 80 countries worldwide, and is an extremely painful, debilitating and disfiguring disease.

Onchocerciasis

Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, infects 37 million people living near the rivers and fast-moving streams of sub-Saharan Africa.

Schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or “snail fever”, is a parasitic disease carried by fresh water snails infected with one of the five varieties of the parasite Schistosoma.

Trachoma

Trachoma is an infectious disease of the eye caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, and is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness.

Trichuriasis

Trichuriasis is an infection of the large intestine caused by the human whipworm (Trichuris trichiura).