We have resolved the Call for International Cooperation Projects in Health 2025 which, since 2018, has focused on controlling and eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) that affect more than 1,000 million people. 

The four chosen projects, with a duration of two years, are developed in collaboration with leading entities in NTDs: the Fundación Fontilles in India, the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control in Cambodia, the Fundación Mozambique Sur in Mozambique and the Centro de Epidemiología Comunitaria y Medicina Tropical (CECOMET) in Equador.

Leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, strongyloidiasis, scabies, ringworm, malaria and tuberculosis are some of the diseases that will be the focus of our attention in the coming years.

These are projects that will strengthen primary health care structures and health systems at the community level. This includes training of local health workers, vector control, training in disease treatment, as well as health education campaigns aimed at changing behaviours that allow disease control. Finally, work will be done on the provision of water and sanitation as a tool for the prevention of NTDs and other communicable diseases.

Thus, wherever we work, we join all communities, entities and health administrations so that neglected tropical diseases are no longer neglected. They can be prevented in the communities and recognized by health personnel and community health promoters to be treated through primary health care.

We are convinced that the fight against neglected tropical diseases, malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis represents an opportunity to transform our world and improve the lives of those most disadvantaged populations, in the words of the United Nations: "leaving no one behind".

Our ultimate goal is to strengthen communities in their health care, health personnel in the knowledge of diseases for their prevention and control, and health structures to improve accessibility to services.
 

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are specifically included in target 3.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which shows their global relevance both for their high prevalence and for the serious social and economic consequences they generate. 

These are 21 diseases that mainly affect temperate countries and isolated regions, disproportionately impacting communities with limited economic and health resources. By 2025, it is estimated that more than 1,000 million people are living with an NTD, and that 1,495 million require preventive or curative interventions. This figure not only reveals the magnitude of the problem, but also highlights a profound inequality: those who suffer from these diseases tend to belong to the most vulnerable sectors of the population, with low incomes and limited or non-existent access to health services. 

These communities, located in remote rural areas, face structural barriers that hinder the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of NTDs. In many cases, health facilities and trained staff are not available, and diseases that affect them are not among the priorities of local health systems.