Nigeria “Ground Zero for the High Prevalence Neglected Tropical Diseases 英文参考文献.docVIP

Editorial Nigeria:‘‘GroundZero’’fortheHighPrevalence NeglectedTropicalDiseases PeterJ.Hotez1,2*,OluwatoyinA.Asojo2,3,AdekunleM.Adesina2,4 1SabinVaccineInstituteandTexasChildren’sHospitalCenterforVaccineDevelopment,DepartmentsofPediatrics(SectionofPediatricTropicalMedicine)andMolecular Virology Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, 2National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, 3Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America,4DepartmentofPathologyImmunology,NationalSchoolofTropicalMedicine,BaylorCollegeofMedicine,Houston,Texas,UnitedStatesofAmerica AmongalloftheAfricannations,Nigeriahas the greatest number of people infected with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). With the right political will, the country has sufficient resourcestoexpanditscurrentinvestmentsforthe importantworkofNigeria’sNTDprogram. it is widely accepted that transmission of guineawormhasbeeninterruptedthere. ThehighprevalenceNTDsarerespon- sible for an enormous disease burden in Africa, equivalent to almost one-half the disease burden from malaria when mea- sured in disability-adjusted life years [1]. There is an equally important adverse economicimpactbecauseoftheeffectsof theseNTDsonmaternal-childhealthand workerproductivityinAfrica[1].Howev- er, the seven most common NTDs can oftenbecontrolledorinsomecaseseven eliminated through low cost ‘‘rapid-im- pact’’packagesofdrugs,whichareeither donated by multinational pharmaceutical companiesorthroughthepurchaseoflow- cost generic drugs. At a cost of less than US$1perpersonannually,theprevalence of the intestinal helminth infections and schistosomiasis could be reduced in some areas, while LF, onchocerciasis, and tra- choma might even be eliminated over a period of several years. Therefore, based on Nigeria’s current population estimate ofapproximately150millionpeople