Health
Providing treatment for NTDs alleviates their disabling effects.
- Children who receive treatment for soil-transmitted helminths are able to grow and learn to their fullest potential, free of parasites that rob them of nutrients and slow their mental development
- Men and women treated for onchocerciasis no longer suffer excruciatingly itchy and painful lesions that keep them at home and can eventually lead to lifelong blindness
- Each treatment provided for trachoma brings us closer to eliminating the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness
- Preventive treatment of lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) ensures that men and women are not at risk for grotesque and disabling swelling of their limbs and genitals
Economic
NTD control can enormously benefit the work force and economic productivity of communities.
- Treating hookworm in children could result in a 40% increase in future wage earnings
- In Kenya, deworming could raise per-capita earning by 30%
- Controlling lymphatic filariasis in India would add $1.5 billion to the country’s annual GNP
- Successful deworming programs in Japan during the 1950s are partly responsible for the country’s subsequent economic boom
Social
Reducing the burden of NTDs lessens the severe social stigmatization they cause.
- People who are freed from stigma are less likely to delay seeking medical care, preventing increased suffering and helping to break the cycle of poverty
Educational
Treating the 400 million NTD-infected children throughout the developing world is one of the most important strategies for ensuring universal access to education.
- Deworming is the single most cost-effective means of improving school attendance
- Controlling intestinal worms will help to avoid 16 million cases of mental retardation and 200 million years of lost primary schooling among children in developing countries
