The Probitas Foundation, with the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day (NTD)

Two years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) established January the 30th as the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day (NTDs). NTDs bring together a group of diseases with common characteristics under the same umbrella: they are debilitating, frequently chronic, and traditionally ignored by governments, researchers, donors, and society in general because they affect the poorest populations (hence their name "neglected care"). With all the activities that are carried out on a planetary level, the objective of controlling, eliminating and eradicating these diseases is pursued, in order to improve the well-being and future expectations of the people who suffer from them.

Even today, 1.7 billion people continue to suffer from NTDs. The path taken is promising, since in the last decade up to 47 countries have already totally eliminated some of these diseases. But there are still many challenges to be achieved, both in the prevention and in the diagnosis and treatment of NTDs. At a preventive level, a substantial improvement in the safety of water and access to adequate sanitation will effectively contribute to reducing the incidence of NTDs. At the care level, improving access to health care for the population is the best weapon to effectively combat NTDs. Dengue, Chagas, Zika, leprosy or rabies are some of the 20 neglected tropical diseases against which the WHO is fighting on a common front.

The Probitas Foundation, actively working since 2018 against NTDs

At the Probitas Foundation we have been supporting, at an international level, initiatives to combat and drastically reduce NTDs for five years now. Through its "Global Laboratory Initiative" and International Cooperation Programs, the Probitas Foundation works to balance the planet's health inequalities. Thus, whether by strengthening the capacity for clinical diagnosis in health centres or promoting community health projects, through the Foundation's programs we fight against NTDs by strengthening the public and community health systems of the countries in which we work.

Our initiatives have in common the aim of improving the living conditions and access to health of the most vulnerable populations that live in remote areas of the planet, with scarce resources. In this way, from our organisation, among the 13 goals included in objective 3 (Health and Well-being), we have focused on the work to achieve goal 3: "By 2030, put an end to the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, waterborne diseases and other communicable diseases”.

We believe that the fight against NTDs will significantly advance the SDG agenda in all its breadth and diversity since, although NTDs are especially important for meeting the health objective (SDG 3), they also affect and are affected by other objectives such as put an end to poverty and hunger or guarantee the availability of water and sanitation to reduce inequalities.

Over the last five years we have supported community projects to fight dengue, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, trachoma, intestinal parasites, yaws and other NTDs. We have done it hand in hand with the ministries of health of the countries in which we work and in collaboration with international cooperation entities. We have improved clinical laboratories that help diagnose these and other diseases and have supported research projects that fight NTDs.

This is the grain of sand that from the Probitas Foundation, we contribute one more year, on the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day so that the imbalances between the world's populations are reduced and the level of global well-being of the planet improves.