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Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) impact nearly 1.7 billion people each year, causing serious illness or lifelong disability among many—often leading to stigma and exclusion—and killing an estimated 200,000. The vast majority of sufferers live in the world’s poorest countries.

The World Health Organization’s NTD roadmap 2021-2030 aims to address 20 tropical diseases through prevention, control, elimination, and/or eradication. But despite some progress, reaching all its targets will take better, far more accessible diagnostics and treatments along with more robust strategies, political commitment and resources.

To mark World NTD Day, this collection spotlights work by MSF and collaborators on improving approaches to snakebite envenoming, kala azar and noma. One study presents an innovative artificial intelligence-based snakebite diagnostic tool, while others evaluate shorter, less toxic drug regimens or different models of care. Several commentaries advocate for national/regional strategies adapted to contexts ranging from remote villages to active conflict zones. Another crucial factor is the climate crisis, which is intensifying the transmission and geographic spread of many NTDs.

Diabetes affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, a large majority of them living in low- and middle-income countries. Yet finding effective strategies, tools and policies for effectively managing this chronic illness—especially amid war, displacement or exclusion from care—is a neglected area of humanitarian medicine. Here we present a cross-section of work on this front by MSF and collaborators. Several studies assess the shift towards community-based, nurse-led models of care in rural settings. Others explore obstacles to diabetes care for war refugees living in camps in Jordan or Lebanon, highlighting how health programs can adapt to their needs. The demonstration that insulin retains potency for 30 days if cooled without refrigeration is opening doors to more patient self-management, as a case study in remote South Sudan shows. At the same time, MSF and others call for regulatory and financing policies that make diabetes medications and supplies cheaper, better adapted to humanitarian settings, and far more available to patients whose lives depend on them.

The World Health Organization estimates that 410,000 people developed a drug-resistant tuberculosis infection (DR-TB) in 2022, only 40% of whom were diagnosed and started on treatment—and only 63% then cured. Given all these points of failure, innovation in preventing, diagnosing and treating DR-TB cannot come fast enough. To mark World TB Day (24 March 2024) the content collection linked below highlights recent work by MSF and collaborators to help change this grim picture. The TB-PRACTECAL and endTB studies delivered robust evidence for shorter, safer, more effective drug regimens that are already saving lives worldwide. Other studies explore new approaches to preventive treatment and simpler, quicker, accurate detection of TB and drug resistance—especially among difficult-to-diagnose populations such as children and people living with HIV. But to impact DR-TB globally these innovations must become widely accessible. This requires changes on many fronts, as described in an accompanying Collection (Expanding Access to Lifesaving New TB Tools).

Burn injuries represent a challenge in the Gaza Strip, where access to rehabilitation services is constrained by ongoing conflict and limited healthcare resources. This study describe...

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World NTD Day

Diabetes care in humanitarian settings

New tools and approaches to drug-resistant TB

Post-surgical scar management and rehabilitation in burn patients: Insights from Gaza’s challenging context - A retrospective descriptive study

First culture-confirmed melioidosis case in Mozambique: A wakeup call for better diagnostics and clinical awareness

Shotgun metagenomic analysis of the oral microbiomes of children with noma

The effects of armed conflict on children and adolescents: Policy statement