Whereas most people think about the NTDs as exclusive to destabilized countries such as South Sudan, Somalia, or Haiti, my recent analysis, published in Foreign Policy, has found that most of the world’s NTDs paradoxically occur in G20 countries in addition to Nigeria.

In this and several other articles published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases since 2009 we have tried to consistently emphasize the disproportionate impact of S. haematobium infection on girls and women.

Dr. Peter Hotez, the preeminent virologist, microbiologist, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and distinguished professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he is the founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, recently posted a new article on the PLOS blog that cites marked improvements in the fight to eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) in developing countries, as well as new initiatives that still need to gain traction in the public sector in order to bolster these efforts.

In this new edition of Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases, author Peter J. Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine explains how NTDs and poverty are inextricably linked—today 20 million Americans who live in extreme poverty, including 1.5 million families in the United States whose members live on less than $2 per day.