Against the backdrop of outbreak of the deadly Lassa fever disease in some states of the country, the South-East Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria has raised the alarm that Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are re-emerging and killing more people than some of the diseases considered endemic by the global community.

Speaking during the society’s commemoration of the 2020 World Neglected Tropical Disease Week, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) on Thursday, its South East Coordinator, Professor Ikem Okoye, outlined some of the neglected diseases to include river blindness, leprosy, scabies, rabies, Tacoma and snakebite envenoming.

Professor Okoye said that the diseases were tagged neglected because the sensitisation about their prevalence and impact were no longer considered sources of great concern to the global health community.

“Despite the neglect, the NTDs have continued to kill people and render many others incapacitated to contribute to the economic growth of the society,” Okoye, who is also the Head, Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology of UNN, said.

He called on the federal and state governments to make allocations in their health budgets for sensitisation of the public against the prevalence of the NTDs.

Dr Emmanuel Ude, a Public Health Parasitologist and Molecular Epidemiologist, blamed the prevalence of the NTDs on poverty and unclean environment.

Ude, who was the Guest Speaker at the event, said that the 2020 World Neglected Tropical Disease Day was meant to create awareness and draw resources to control the diseases affecting over one billion people globally.

He acknowledged that most of the disease could be controlled and urged people to keep a clean environment and to always present themselves for medical checks whenever they feel symptoms of ill health.

“If we practice environmental sanitation, many diseases, including Lassa Fever will be eliminated,” he said.

Professor DenChris Onah, a former director of Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said that the NTDs are prevalent only in resource poor countries like Nigeria.

He said that the diseases would continue to affect people in those countries because the government and funding agencies have lost interest in advancing campaign against their prevalence.

Professor Onah urged Nigerians to beware of the re-emergence of NTDs which many people thought had been eradicated.

•Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria South East Coordinator, Prof. Ikem Okoye