Central Asia's hidden burden of neglected tropical diseases

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases will publish an article emphasizing the rising burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Central Asia on Tuesday, Sept. 27th. According to the article's co-authors, Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Dr. Ken Alibek of Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, the region continues to suffer from a post-Soviet economic breakdown that may have contributed to a re-emergence of several NTDs in the area, especially among its most economically disadvantaged groups.

Specifically, the five mostly landlocked Central Asian countries created after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- became increasingly vulnerable to NTDs due to a deterioration of health care services and infrastructure. Among the prevalent diseases profiled in the article, the following was highlighted:

• A study of rural primary schools in southwestern Kyrgyzstan found that many of the children had at least one soil-transmitted helminth infection. Developmental and cognitive delays have been associated in children with these infections, leading to decreased school attendance and low wages earned as adults. In Uzbekistan, and likely in other Central Asian countries, soil-transmitted helminth infections have been responsible for losses in economic productivity.
• After the decentralization of farming and livestock production, small farms in Central Asia were left largely without veterinary inspection, leading to the deterioration of veterinary public health and the rise of zoonotic, or animal-borne, helminth infections. In four of the Central Asian nations, cystic echinococcosis -- a tapeworm infection spread by dogs and sheep -- has increased at least four-fold and is thought to be vastly under-reported. There has also been an alarming increase in pediatric cases of this and other zoonotic helminth infections.
• Despite a considerable decrease in reported malaria cases as a result of indoor residual spraying and mass drug administration of anti-malaria drugs, a large portion of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan populations is still at risk for Plasmodium vivax malaria. In Tajikistan, the malaria epidemic is fueled by human migrations from Afghanistan, thwarting efforts to eliminate malaria in neighboring countries.

Dr. Hotez, who also serves as the director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute & Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development and was recently named the founding dean of the first national school of tropical medicine, located at Baylor College of Medicine, said, "There appears to be an overall absence of detailed information on the prevalence of many of these neglected diseases in Central Asia."

Hotez and Alibek also suggest that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria should consider how to best integrate NTDs into their control and elimination programs in order to help ease the burden caused by NTDs.

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors received no funding for this work.

COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

CITATION: Hotez PJ, Alibek K (2011) Central Asia's Hidden Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(9): e1224. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001224

CONTACT:
Richard Hatzfeld
Sabin Vaccine Institute
202-842-8467
Richard.hatzfeld@sabin.org

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About NTDs

NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that are the most common afflictions of the world's poorest people. They blind, disable and disfigure their victims, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and disease. Research shows that treating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.

About Sabin Vaccine Institute

Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering caused by vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world's most pervasive health challenges. Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate these diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments. For more information please visit http://www.sabin.org.

About PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (http://www.plosntds.org/) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to the pathology, epidemiology, prevention, treatment, and control of the neglected tropical diseases, as well as public policy relevant to this group of diseases. All works published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases are open access, which means that everything is immediately and freely available subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License, and copyright is retained by the authors.

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