True to their name, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) seldom receive the attention they warrant.
In recent years, intensive efforts from CDC and its partners have helped ensure that hundreds of millions of people no longer live at risk for certain NTDs. Forty countries, territories, and areas have achieved World Health Organization (WHO)’s elimination targets for at least one disease.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to reverse some of this progress and put millions of people in impoverished areas back at risk for infection. Faced with extraordinary challenges the need for countries to focus on the COVID-19 response, concerns about COVID-19 risks associated with NTD control activities, and limitations on travel CDC and its partners adapted their work to continue battling NTDs.