Neglected diseases

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about ten million people are infected with Chagas disease, and more than 10,000 die each year. The disease is widespread, especially in Latin America, where almost a quarter of the population are affected in some areas.

Confusion, sensory disturbances, coordination difficulties: patients who suffer from African sleeping sickness gradually lose control of their consciousness and eventually fall into a coma in the final stage of the disease.

Malaria is still the most dangerous tropical disease today. An estimate of the exact number of cases is almost impossible – but according to the 2013 World Malaria Report up to 207 million people suffer from the disease, and up to 650,000 die each year.

One of the most neglected tropical diseases is “river blindness”, a parasitic disease caused by a filarial worm transmitted by repeated bites of infected blackflies. These blackflies breed in fast-flowing rivers and streams, mostly in remote villages located near fertile land where people rely on agriculture. River blindness is the world’s second leading infectious cause of blindness.