Challenges for Diagnosis of Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases in Elimination Settings

摘要

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represent a significant health burden for many countries in the developing world. Currently, there are 17 NTDs prioritized by the World Health Organization (WHO). These NTDs are endemic in 149 countries and affect an estimated 1.4 billion people. NTDs therefore also constitute a very significant burden on the already strained healthcare systems and the economies of many developing countries [1]. To complicate matters, there is not much interest in the development of new diagnostic tools for these diseases. Malaria, for instance, even not formally considered a neglected disease, poses many challenges in terms of the diagnosis of submicroscopic parasitemia [2], which seems to sustain the transmission of the disease in low endemic areas.