Abstract

Many authors have published figures and pie charts that suggest that the global burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases is every bit as large as that of malaria and TB. Can this be true? It is the sheer number of people infected with the NTDs which collectively raise the burden. In this presentation the calculation of the burden of the NTDs will be discussed and a review presented of the current progress towards control of NTDs in different continents—which may contribute to the burden being reduced by 2020.