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.

Last May the World Health Assembly passed a ground-breaking resolution endorsing the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), a roadmap to achieve ambitious immunization goals, making this decade the “Decade of Vaccines.”

A new public-private partnership of the Japanese Government, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation and a group of private pharmaceutical companies seeks to foster and harness Japanese innovation to address diseases that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries.

The flattening in support for biomedical research as well as other research fields in the United States over the last decade is having serious consequences for American science and scientists. Ultimately, we need a new generation of scientist-advocates and policy experts if we expect to reverse this trend.