The  recent launch of new initiatives on helminth diseases and HIV/AIDS drugs for infants by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiatives led me to wonder about the broad burden of neglected diseases. One such is the benign sounding sleeping sickness disease which, carried by the tsetse fly, still today causes devastating human deaths. Another is the disease known as elephantiasis that causes people to suffer from debilitating swollen limbs and genitals as a result of thread like worm…

Global funding for neglected diseases, including some targeted in the Millennium Development Goals, rose to $3.2 billion in 2009 and funds were better distributed between diseases, according to the third G-FINDER report. The funding rise of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars between 2008 and 2009 came alongside a $50 million drop in funding for non-profit organisations that coordinate product development partnerships for neglected diseases.

The report examined global funding for 31 neglected diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases and dengue,…

The developing world may have arrived a little late to the developed world non-communicable disease party, but countries in South Asia are now taking the lead, according to a new World Bank report available in April. ‘Capitalizing on the Demographic Transition: Tackling Non-communicable Diseases in South Asia’ highlights the rising non-communicable disease health crises in South Asia, and reflects a growing burden of diseases such as heart disease and diabetes in the region. As in high income countries a decade ago, these diseases now account for over half of the disease burden in the…