UAES URGES GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

The Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Umuagwo, Imo State, Prof. Christopher Chiedozie Eze, has urged global action against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

The Vice-Chancellor made this call at a rally organized to commemorate the 2024 Neglected Tropical Diseases Day in the University. Addressing the rally jointly organized by the University and the Initiative for Infectious Disease Control on February 5, 2024, the Professor of Agricultural Economics said that the world is still in need of robust awareness on the menace of NTDs.

He called for an end to the unnecessary myth built around NTDs which has made people to seek spiritual solutions rather than medical care on them.

Earlier, Ms Gloria Mbanu, Coordinator of the Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria (PPSN), UAES Chapter, stated that the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are diseases often neglected by the government and the sufferers. She regretted that the sufferers are quick to allude the cause of the diseases to traditional assumptions, hence the mission to selected nearby communities to sensitize the public on the dreaded diseases.

Examples of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) include: Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, Chromoblastomycosis, Dengue and severe dengue, Dracunculiasis (guinea worm), Echinococcosis and Foodborne trematode infections, among others.