Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a 2021-30 neglected tropical disease (NTD) roadmap aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “The road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030 sets out global targets for 2030 and milestones to prevent, control, eliminate and eradicate a diverse set of twenty diseases and disease groups,” the […]
elimination
How does India fare on the roadmap to elimination?
India has a prolonged history of setting ambitious elimination deadlines for a host of diseases, only to miss the deadline and simply re-announce another year. Many diseases, such as leprosy, are simply neglected with most individuals affected belonging to lower castes and viewed as outcasts from society — a view proliferative through thousands of years. […]
TB elimination by 2025: Vardhan speaks out
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has affirmed that the Centre is working towards its goal of tuberculosis (TB) elimination ahead of global targets. “By 2025, we wish to eliminate tuberculosis from India,” the Minister informed the press on the sidelines of the Rotary India Centennial Summit in Kolkata on Saturday. The 2025 target for […]
Towards a malaria-free India: Parliamentarians forge strategic alliance to wipe out deadly disease
New Delhi, January 29th, 2020: Parliamentarians from across party lines have joined hands and formed a coalition to support India’s efforts to eliminate malaria by 2030. The group called “Parliamentarians for Malaria Elimination” includes eleven Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to different states, including many with a high malaria burden. More MPs are expected to join […]
India unlikely to eliminate filariasis by deadline?
Lymphatic filariasis — known commonly as just filariasis or elephantiasis — is the target of elimination attempts in India, with a deadline set for 2021. Is it likely that India will meet this goal? Currently, at least one million people in India are estimated to be infected by the disease. Even after the infection has […]
Lymphatic filariasis: Can India eliminate it?
At the beginning of October, the island nation of Kiribati announced that it had eliminated lymphatic filariasis. By 2021, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has pledged that India will do the same. What is lymphatic filariasis? Lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that attacks the lymphatic system. It is caused […]
The leprosy capital of the world
India is officially the leprosy capital of the world according to the World Health Organization (WHO); they estimate that 66 percent of all the world’s leprosy patients now reside in the country. Such news comes as a blow to India’s prior announcement — dating back to 2005 — of the elimination of leprosy. An estimated […]
Concern as cases of leprosy spike
India may have officially eliminated leprosy in 2005. However, the battle against the disease is far from over. A spike in the number of new infections has furthered alarm that the disease may be showing signs of a resurgence in India. 90,709 cases of leprosy were recorded in the 2017-18 period, statistics suggest. This is […]
Supreme Court seeks answers on treatment of leprosy patients
The Supreme Court is seeking answers from the Centre about the treatment of leprosy patients and India’s progress against the disease. The SC, responding to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (VCLP), has directed the Centre to enact a central law barring discrimination against leprosy patients. It is […]
Disease elimination and the dangers of resurgence
Eliminating a disease is undoubtedly a positive achievement, typically signalling that a country is one step closer towards ridding itself of said disease entirely. However, this news brings with it the dangers of policymakers and populations becoming complacent – allowing for a potential resurgence. The qualification for the classification of elimination is a reduction of […]