Open AccessPLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: Ten years of progress in neglected tropical disease control and elimination … More or less
Author(s) -
Peter J. Hotez,
Serap Aksoy
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos neglected tropical diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.99
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 1935-2735
pISSN - 1935-2727
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005355
Subject(s) - neglected tropical diseases , tropical disease , millennium development goals , disease eradication , disease control , global health , disease , disease burden , medicine , public health , environmental health , economic growth , poverty , pathology , economics
This year PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases ( PLOS NTDs ) celebrates its tenth anniversary following the publication of the first issue in 2007 [ 1 ]. When PLOS NTDs was founded, the framework of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as an alternative to “other diseases” (as they were then referred to in the Millennium Development Goals) was just getting started—especially for Africa [ 2 , 3 ]. In the decade since, PLOS NTDs has overseen enormous successes in NTD control and elimination. Here, we want to briefly review the ten year progress made towards the control or elimination of the diseases now identified by the WHO as NTDs. Many of the details are highlighted in PLOS NTDs papers cited here, but the summary information is based on the recently released Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2015 (also launched with Gates Foundation support) that summarized past-decade changes in disease prevalence, mortality, or disability rates (from the years 2005 to 2015) [ 4 – 6 ], as well as the GBD Study 2013 that summarizes disease prevalence changes over a longer time horizon from 1990 to 2013 [ 7 ].