Global burden, distribution, and interventions for infectious diseases of poverty

Abstract

Infectious diseases of poverty (IDoP) disproportionately affect the poorest population in the world and contribute to a cycle of poverty as a result of decreased productivity ensuing from long-term illness, disability, and social stigma. In 2010, the global deaths from HIV/AIDS have increased to 1.5 million and malaria mortality rose to 1.17 million. Mortality from neglected tropical diseases rose to 152,000, while tuberculosis killed 1.2 million people that same year. Substantial regional variations exist in the distribution of these diseases as they are primarily concentrated in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with geographic overlap and high levels of co-infection. Evidence-based interventions exist to prevent and control these diseases, however, the coverage still remains low with an emerging challenge of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, community-based delivery platforms are increasingly being advocated to ensure sustainability and combat co-infections.Because of the high morbidity and mortality burden of these diseases, especially in resource-poor settings, it is imperative to conduct a systematic review to identify strategies to prevent and control these diseases. Therefore, we attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of one of these strategies, that is community-based delivery for the prevention and treatment of IDoP. In this paper, we describe the burden, epidemiology, and potential interventions for IDoP. In subsequent papers of this series, we describe the analytical framework and the methodology used to guide the systematic reviews, and report the findings and interpretations of our analyses of the impact of community-based strategies on individual IDoPs.

Promoting Evidence to Policy Link on the Control of Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria: Outcome of A Multi-Stakeholders Policy Dialogue

“…Despite this decline, the burden of malaria and other IDP is still enormous in Africa. In a recent publication, Bhutta and colleagues, 5 noted that IDP disproportionately affect the poorest population in the affected regions and contribute to a cycle of poverty as a result of decreased productivity ensuing from long-term illness, disability, and social stigma. The severely affected populations are usually the poor and have fewer material, physical, and financial resources to draw from and limited or no access to integrated health care, prevention tools and medications, thus resulting in the most severe adverse impacts.…”

“…The severely affected populations are usually the poor and have fewer material, physical, and financial resources to draw from and limited or no access to integrated health care, prevention tools and medications, thus resulting in the most severe adverse impacts. 5 In Nigeria, malaria, schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis are among the IDP with severe health burden and require effective policy strategies for their control. 9 According to the WHO Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty, policy-makers need to have access to the right information at the right time to inform decisions that draw on the evidence of what works, and feed "best buys" into health policy, health budgets and the operations of health systems.…”

“…1 There is abundant research evidence indicating that effective and simple interventions to prevent and control these IDP exist, but their delivery to affected populations has proven very difficult due to weak health system infrastructure, lack of evidence-informed policies on their control and lack of strong political will in many low income settings. 5 One of the hallmarks of effective policy on IDP control is to make evidence-informed policy. 1,6 Consequently, the need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policymakers to make evidence informed policy regarding IDP cannot be overstated.…”

“…[3][4][5] However, there is a global decline in the burden of some of the IDP in areas where control strategies have been deployed efficiently. [5][6][7][8] In the 2014 World Malaria Report, 8 WHO estimated that malaria deaths ranged 367 000-755 000 worldwide, with 90% of the global total, occurring in the African Region and up to 78% of malaria deaths occurring among children aged under 5 years. Despite this decline, the burden of malaria and other IDP is still enormous in Africa.…”

Human infections and co-infections with helminths in a rural population in Guichi, Anhui Province, China

“…Multiparasitism is believed to be common among deprived populations, especially in rural areas where sanitation conditions are poor N o n c o m m e r c i a l u s e o n l y (Bhutta et al, 2014). It has been documented that even low-intensity infections with several helminths can cause significant morbidity (de Silva, 2003;Ezeamama et al, 2005).…”