Forgotten People , Forgotten Diseases : The Neglected Tropical Diseases and Their Impact on Global Health and Development

This quotation appears late in Peter Hotez’s Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases, but its call to action issues forth from every page of this entertaining and often fascinating book. Forgotten People tells the story of the 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and chronicles the successes and failures in controlling these diseases worldwide. For those less experienced in tropical disease, I can think of no better book to introduce the field. For the more seasoned tropical disease physicians and those familiar with Hotez’s work in the field, including his numerous publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Vaccine, the book will serve as a highly readable review of the history, epidemiology, and basic science of the world’s NTDs, as well as policy concerns. Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases provides updates on each of the 17 NTDs, including progress toward disease control, elimination or eradication, the history of treatments and medications, and future directions in medication and vaccine development. This is not a tropical disease textbook, however. For that level of scientific depth and detail, one may turn to Manson’s Tropical Diseases (22nd ed), or Guerrant’s Tropical Infectious Diseases: Principles, Pathogens, and Practice (3rd ed). The book contains 12 brief chapters, complete with helpful chapter summaries, quotes, images, descriptions of parasite life cycles from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and World Health Organization (WHO) global epidemiology maps. Hotez traces the origins of the NTDs to the year 2000, when Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University highlighted the link between disease and chronic poverty, and the United Nations released its 8 Millennium Development Goals. In 2005, aworkinggroupproposed theoriginal 13 NTDs, whichWHO expanded to 17. An introductory chapter is followed by chapters devoted to either a grouping of related NTDs or a single NTD. Chapter 1, one of the book’s strongest, opens with the Elie Wiesel quote “the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference” and chronicles the origins of this 21st century global health movement. A chapter on the soiltransmitted helminthic infections ascariasis, trichuriasis, and hookworm follows, with emphasis on Hotez’s extensive work on hookworm, which infects 600 million persons in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the tropical Americas. This section introduces a recurring theme among theNTDs— their poverty promoting features—and highlights the anemia, low birth weight, growth delay, and cognitive decline resulting from chronic hookworm infection. The book concludes with a chapter on hookworm and Hotez’s current leadership role in the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative at the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine. In between, chapters on schistosomiasis, filarial infections, and the blinding NTDs onchocerciasis and trachoma are followed by the mycobacterial infections Buruli ulcer and leprosy, the kinetoplastid infections trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis, and the urban NTDs leptospirosis, dengue, and rabies. A chapter on the NTDs of North America (toxocariasis, cysticercosis, Chagas disease, and strongyloidiasis) recounts the historical impact of urbanization on decreasing infections previously endemic to the southeastern United States (soil-transmitted helminthic infection, malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever). Another interesting example of medical history in Forgotten People recounts the impact of schistosomiasis in Mao’s postrevolution China. People’s Liberation Army troops were infected while undergoing water training in the eastern Yangtze River in preparation for an assault on Taiwan (then Formosa), which delayed the assault and cleared the way for US forces to enter the Strait of Formosa. Other interesting stories of medical anthropology enriching Forgotten People include the origin of diethylcarbamazinefortified salt for lymphatic filariasis and a history of leprosy (possibly the first infectious disease described) from biblical times to the Hansen’s Disease Center in Louisiana, closed in 1999. One of the strengths of the book and Hotez’s work is the structure that defining the NTDs provides for this group of often-overlooked diseases, creating a framework for the important work of disease control. Hotez tells the story of a movement—how advocacy is done on a global scale—and his book is a vehicle for this work. Forgotten People opens a window onto the politics and policy side of infectious disease, and critics may find an overemphasis on policy issues and feel occasionally overwhelmed by the naming of so many organizations and reoccurring lists of diseases, acronyms, and figures. The multitude of persons, groups, and institutions, however, stresses the importance of connectedness in medicine and public policy. Little is accomplished alone, readers are reminded, and Hotez remains unapologetic in his advocacy for more exposure for the NTDs, and more support. To date, 250 million persons have been treated with all or part of a “rapid impact package” for 7 NTDs, and the WHO estimates that more than 700 million have received treatment for NTDs in “some of the largest public health control efforts ever undertaken.” Hotez argues, based on the metric of disability-adjusted life-years that the worldwide impact of the NTDs is comparable

Avian infl uenza, caused by infl uenza virus A (H5N1), continues to be a source of outbreaks among avian species and of sporadic human cases that result in a high case-fatality rate.These historically unprecedented outbreaks have raised serious global concerns for both animal health and human health.Signifi cant progress in the research of avian infl uenza has occurred in the past decade, but unanswered questions remain.How does avian infl uenza cross species barriers and acquire transmissibility among humans?How can we minimize the risk of emergence of a pandemic virus?Will subtype H5N1 maintain its virulence in humans when it becomes a pandemic virus?This book helps readers understand what is known and what remains to be known about avian infl uenza.
The book contains 19 articles written by leaders in avian infl uenza research.The authors provide a comprehensive and updated review of current knowledge on avian infl uenza, with particular emphasis on H5N1.The articles cover various aspects of avian infl uenza, including its epidemiology and ecology as well as control strategies for potential outbreaks of avian infl uenza in Asia and Europe.Some articles describe the molecular mechanisms of interspecies transmission and virulence in birds and humans.Both interspecies transmission and virulence are determined by many molecular changes in different genes, but the mechanisms for interspecies transmission and virulence are not completely understood.Other articles address timely and important issues such as vaccine development and antiviral resistance.
All pandemic infl uenza viruses in humans originated from avian infl uenza viruses.Understanding how an avian virus can become a pandemic virus that causes devastating effects on human health is critical.This book is a valuable reference for scientists and public health specialists who work in either animal health or human health.
Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases is an interesting and highly informative book about the global status of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).Author Peter Hotez introduces NTDs by describing them in general, their historical importance and global impact, and their shared characteristics.According to Hotez, NTDs are among the most common infections from antiquity and occur in the world's poorest people.Their distribution and health and economic effects are similar to those of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.NTDs, however, are much less well known than these diseases and frequently display high rates of illness but few deaths, promote poverty, and create profound social stigma.
Twelve well-illustrated chapters address the important NTDs, including soil-transmitted helminth infections, schistosomiasis, fi lariasis, onchocerciasis, trachoma, mycobacterial infections, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, dengue, leptospirosis, and rabies.Hotez discusses what these diseases are, where they occur, and who they affect.The fi nal chapters focus on prospects to prevent and control NTDs and the need for additional advocacy.Hotez emphasizes the need for new safer and more effective drugs, as well as for socalled "anti-poverty vaccines," which by promoting health will open doors to economic advancement and stability, goals that have been all but impossible in developing countries, largely because of NTDs.
Few people are more qualifi ed to write such a book than Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and a pioneer in hookworm molecular genetics, physiology, immunology, and pathogenesis.This easy-to-read and up-to-date text undoubtedly will prove useful to graduate students, volunteers, advocates, healthcare professionals, and others interested in global health and equality.Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases is an essential read for every serious student of tropical medicine and global infectious diseases.