When I was working as a surgeon in #South Sudan, a family brought their terrified child to the @MSF clinic.

A venomous snake had bitten him on the arm.

Despite daily surgical procedures to debride the dead tissue, we ended up having to amputate the affected limb.

I will never forget how incredibly courageous that young boy was. He was one of the 6,000 snakebite patients @MSF treats each year.

It didn’t have to be this way... Yet snakebite has always been low on the public health agenda at national and international levels.

His story illustrates just how important it is to improve the global response to #NTDs in order to prevent further deaths and disability.

For over thirty years, @MSF has provided uninterrupted medical care for patients with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

Today is #WorldNTDDay and on this thread I'll explain why we need to make NTDs diseases of the past. #EndTheNeglect

Neglected tropical diseases almost exclusively affect people living in extreme poverty. For many of these, there are no vaccines, diagnostic tools are limited, & treatments are often unavailable or unaffordable.

Without these, it'll be difficult to ever #beatNTDs

If these diseases did not impact mostly low and lower-middle income countries, it's likely that incentives would exist for companies to develop new diagnostics and drugs. #EndTheNeglect

In remote and resource poor settings where health systems are underdeveloped, @MSF is often one of the only actors caring for patients affected by neglected tropical diseases.

There's a risk that #NTDs are even further neglected now that the world’s attention has turned to the #COVID19 pandemic. Neglecting these diseases is likely to contribute to a loss of the gains achieved in recent years and an even higher human toll.

The world has mobilised to develop vaccines, treatments, and tests for COVID-19 — although equitable access to these innovations is still unsure. This shows what can be achieved if the political will is present and significant resources are invested.

Why shouldn’t the same kinds of effort should be deployed for the more than 1.5 billion people living with any of the neglected tropical diseases?

The good news is much progress has been made in the fight against #NTDs compared to when @MSF started treating patients some decades ago. There have been substantial advances in innovations and momentum is growing as the @WHO launches a new “road map” to fight 20 NTDs.

Neglect can be overcome.

We can make neglected tropical diseases diseases of the past. #EndTheNeglect

If you want to read more, take a look at this report showcasing @MSF’s experience with kala azar, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, snakebite envenoming, noma and cutaneous leishmaniasis: https://www.msf.org/no-more-neglected-diseases-no-more-neglected-patients