Officials from the world's leading development and public health organizations, in addition to representatives from the world's top pharmaceutical companies, descended upon Geneva from April 19-22 to participate in the Neglected Tropical Diseases 2017 Summit. The purpose of the gathering in Switzerland was to discuss ways in which these officials and leaders in their fields could work together to control and eradicate ten neglected tropical diseases.
Neglected Tropical Diseases, or NTDs, are parasitic infections that afflict more than a billion people in 143 different countries. In a wide-reaching effort to help these people, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) partners with over 1,500 private organizations. In the past decade, USAID and its partners have delivered more than 1.3 billion NTD treatments to over 560 million people across 25 countries. Public-private partnerships, like this and others that have convened in Geneva, are key to wiping them out. Yet some at the United Nations are poised to disrupt this lifesaving collaboration.
