As India prepares for final certification on being polio-free for three years, another global campaign aimed at eliminating seven neglected diseases has appointed Abhishek Bachchan as its ambassador.

In his role as the END7 campaign’s first ambassador in India, the junior Bachchan visited Orissa, estimated to have one of the country’s highest burdens of neglected tropical diseases - a group of bacterial and parasitic infections.

Earlier this month, Bachchan visited the Banamalipur Resource Centre run by Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), outside Bhubaneswar. Interacting with women and men suffering from lymphatic filariasis, Bachchan heard their struggle associated with the disease and how it prevented them and their children securing employment and socialising freely within their own communities, a note from the campaign said.

"My first site visit with END7 has been a deeply moving, personal experience that allowed me to understand how these diseases can devastate entire families through the pain and stigma they cause," the communiqué said quoting Bachchan.

He also witnessed various disease management and disability prevention techniques.

"We have a staggering proportion of fellow Indians who are infected by or are at risk of contracting at least one NTD,” he said. And while the country was making progress and had free, safe treatments available – “we must build greater momentum and every Indian should do their part to help make defeating NTDs by 2020 our country's next big health success story," he added.

The END7 public awareness campaign targets controlling and eliminating the seven most common NTDs by 2020. It was launched in 2012 by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (GNNTD), an advocacy initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (SVI).

SVI’s Richard Hatzfeld said the junior Bachchan saw the campaign as among India’s most successful opportunities in public health where one could make a difference, only it needed more attention.

Explaining the challenge that exists, Neeraj Mistry, GNNTD head, said the federal system had excellent policies in place but there was still the problem of dealing with the stigma and discrimination that people faced, he said.

Taking a page from the polio-campaign, he said, partnering with faith-based communities had worked for polio. The END7 campaign would seek to partner with corporates, for instance, to bring attention to these diseases.

Public awareness

Bachchan will help put the spotlight on NTDs as a health priority for India, working with people on awareness and policy-makers on investing in cost-effective NTD programmes.

NTDs are estimated to impact one in six people worldwide, including 500 million children. And India is estimated to be home to 35 per cent of the global population infected with NTDs.

The seven most common NTDs, estimated to account for 90 per cent of the global burden include elephantiasis, river blindness, snail fever, trachoma and diseases caused by hook worms, whip worms and round worms. They cause blindness, massive swelling in the limbs, malnutrition and anaemia.

Lymphatic filariasis, along with other NTDs, can be prevented with a yearly dose of albendazole. Several drug companies have globally committed to supplying medicines to Governments who source medicines and supply them free to patients on NTD programmes.

In fact, many NTD programmes use existing infrastructure such as schools and community centers to administer the medicine, making NTD treatment one of the most cost-effective public health initiatives available today, the note added.

> jyothi.datta@thehindu.co.in

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