938 research outputs found
Keynote Address: New Poverty-Related Neglected Diseases (âThe NTDsâ)
This is the Research Retreat\u27s Keynote presentation by Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., who is Texas Childrenâs Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics and Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez is also Former U.S. Science Envoy. Dr. Hotez discusses neglected topical diseases that are highly prevalent among the poor and endemic in rural areas of low-income countries, such as Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Hookworm Disease, Schistosomiasis, Dengue and many others
Texas and Its Measles Epidemics
Peter Hotez reflects on declining vaccination rates in Texas and the potential for future measles epidemics
Unleashing âCivilian Powerâ: A New American Diplomacy through Neglected Tropical Disease Control, Elimination, Research, and Development
Neglected Infections of Poverty in the United States of America
In the United States, there is a largely hidden burden of diseases caused by a group of chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections known as the neglected infections of poverty. Like their neglected tropical disease counterparts in developing countries, the neglected infections of poverty in the US disproportionately affect impoverished and under-represented minority populations. The major neglected infections include the helminth infections, toxocariasis, strongyloidiasis, ascariasis, and cysticercosis; the intestinal protozoan infection trichomoniasis; some zoonotic bacterial infections, including leptospirosis; the vector-borne infections Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, trench fever, and dengue fever; and the congenital infections cytomegalovirus (CMV), toxoplasmosis, and syphilis. These diseases occur predominantly in people of color living in the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the American South, in disadvantaged urban areas, and in the USâMexico borderlands, as well as in certain immigrant populations and disadvantaged white populations living in Appalachia. Preliminary disease burden estimates of the neglected infections of poverty indicate that tens of thousands, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of poor Americans harbor these chronic infections, which represent some of the greatest health disparities in the United States. Specific policy recommendations include active surveillance (including newborn screening) to ascertain accurate population-based estimates of disease burden; epidemiological studies to determine the extent of autochthonous transmission of Chagas disease and other infections; mass or targeted treatments; vector control; and research and development for new control tools including improved diagnostics and accelerated development of a vaccine to prevent congenital CMV infection and congenital toxoplasmosis
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