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Marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day 2025

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of preventable and treatable diseases that affect about 1.65 billion people around the world. They disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people in the world, often in remote communities and create cycles of poverty and cost developing countries billions of dollars every year.

Thursday 30th January 2025 marked the fifth World NTD Day and the 13th anniversary of the landmark 2012 London Declaration on NTDs, which brought together partners from different sectors, countries, and communities to push for greater investment and action against these debilitating diseases which affect nearly 1billion people around the world.    

A special event at the Royal Society of Edinburgh saw the launch of a new photo exhibition, Amplifying Affected Voices, by the Tiba Partnership, the University of Edinburgh, and Uniting to Combat NTDs. Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA, which means “to cure an infection” in Swahili) is an Africa-led, wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary research programme that explores and draws lessons from the ways that different African health systems tackle infectious diseases. Through TIBA, the University of Edinburgh will be working in partnerships with researchers from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe to generate new knowledge and inform comparative analyses of health systems.

The event also celebrated the news that Niger has become the fifth country globally and the first country in Africa to be acknowledged by WHO as having met the criteria for elimination of onchocerciasis, known as river blindness.

The photo exhibition can be viewed at the Royal Society, 22 George Street, until Tuesday 4th February and is expected to tour schools and other venues across Scotland.

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