WASHINGTON: Given Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stress on "toilets not temples", India has a historic opportunity to end Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) that affect the world's poorest people, according to an Indian-origin health specialist.

"India has an excellent history of controlling and eliminating smallpox, guinea worm and polio. Now we have this huge opportunity to end NTDs," says Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of Global Network for NTDs here.

"We are very positive because of India's proven track record and the current scale of India's treatment programme," Mistry, a third generation South African of Gujarati origin, told IANS. Mistry joined the group in July 2010 as he was passionate about the issue.

"The other positive sign is the new administration's commitment to the issue of sanitation and reducing open defecation," he said. "India is also committed to the London declaration on ending NTDs by 2020."

"In the Indian context, we feel that this is an achievable goal that will propel not only India but also the global response," Mistry said as India accounts for 35 percent of the total global burden of NTDs.

Over 500 million Indians are at risk of the five main NTDs present in India - intestinal worms (roundworm, hookworm, and whipworm), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) and trachoma.

Together with river blindness (onchocerciasis) and snail fever (schistosomiasis), these seven NTDs infect more than one in six people worldwide and cause blindness, massive swelling in appendages and limbs, disfigurement, severe malnutrition and anaemia.
Source: IANS