CORDIS Express: Research results tackle neglected tropical diseases
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 17 neglected tropical diseases or NTDs affect more than one billion people in 149 countries worldwide. Often dubbed the ‘diseases of the poor’, the NTDs, which include sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, elephantiasis and trachoma, mainly affect populations living in poverty without adequate sanitation. Elephantiasis, for example, a painful and profoundly disfiguring disease, affects around 120 million people mainly in Africa and South East Asia. The pharmaceutical industry has been criticised in the past for not doing enough to fight NTDs and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for more resources to be dedicated to innovation on NTDs. In what some will see as an encouraging step forward, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recently adopted by world leaders in New York, have now set out a target dedicated to ending epidemics of NTDs by 2030. However we don’t need to wait until the SDG machine is set in motion to see progress. Many EU-funded research projects are already providing results to help reduce the burden of NTDs. The BERENICE project, for example, has investigated a series of materials and combinations of materials to perform as lipid drug delivery systems in the treatment of Chagas' disease. Meanwhile, in an effort to find a cure to leishmaniasis, the LEISHDRUG project has created a world-class drug development platform supported by assay development, drug target identification with genetic validation. This week, CORDIS Express takes a look at these and other EU-funded projects producing results to reduce the burden of NTDs, as well as related news. - Advancing diagnosis of tropical diseases - Nanomedicine to fight Chagas' disease - Finding a cure for Leishmaniasis - Towards more effective therapy of leishmaniasis - Trending science: Sustainable Development Goals – the role of researchers
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