Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates in London on Monday launched an initiative along with 13 pharmaceutical firms, World Health Organisation, World Bank and the US, UK and UAE governments to eliminate or control 10 neglected tropical diseases by the end of 2020.
At present, 1.4 billion people worldwide, most of whom are among the world’s poorest, are affected by these diseases.
The initiative will get £363 million from the Gates Foundation, £1.4 billion donations of treatments by drug firms and numerous other financial pledges to eradicate Guinea worm disease and expedite elimination for lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, sleeping sickness and leprosy, and control of soil-transmitted helminthes, schistosomiasis, river blindness, Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis. “We are not talking about neglected tropical diseases, but we are talking about diseases of neglected people,” Dr Caroline Anstey, managing director of World Bank said, putting the initiative in perspective.
The holistic approach was advocated by the donors and drug firms, who acknowledged that improvement in quality of life by providing clean water, sanitation, literacy would also help achieve the drug-driven fight to eliminate these diseases. The Indian government, according to Dr Bhawna Sharma of Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, a non-profit drug research and development organisation, “will have to take inspiration from the initiative and create a sustainable programme to help eliminate these diseases.”