Diseases and infection has kind off become a part of our life since we are not the only organism living in our planet and while majority of the organisms are harmless, we have a few ones that are quite harmful. Asides organisms, our activities has also been a part of the problem, because in our aim to develop our world and enjoy civilization, we have done a lot of things that now destroy our cells and tissues hence a number of health conditions we suffer from.
Every year, millions of people get infected with diseases that you might have probably not heard off even though you are familiar with a ton of diseases by the media including malaria, Zika, HIV, Ebola, Covid-19, Typhoid and soon which are a menace to public health, but they are not all the deadly diseases available, there are some diseases that are more deadly than these listed ones our there that we do not know about because they are not as infamous in status as those.
These diseases are known with the collective name Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and the same seems to correlate with the reality that the diseases under this category haven't received much attention as other diseases but maybe because they affect only people in tropical regions but last I checked, they are already paying attention to them because first, how did they get their names if they didn't get the attention needed? Actually, Global Healthcare platforms are already paying attention to them and they also got my attention as well, so let's discuss them.
Schistosomiasis (Snail Fever) is a very deadly disease caused by a parasitic worm known as Schistosoma but the disease is transmitted through using water that is contaminated with the parasite's eggs. The parasite grow on snails in water and when they want to release their larvae, they do so directly into the water thereby contaminating the water leaving people who use the water at a risk of using the water because the larvae has the ability to burrow into the skin of the person.
People who contract and suffer from Schistosomiasis do not often show symptoms in the first two months but some can show symptoms like rash, cough, fever, and aches but most people begin to display signs and symptoms when the Larvae has matured and laid eggs in the human. At this point, the condition is regarded as a chronic one not because of the adult worms but because of the eggs being produced.
The Worms are able to trick the immune system into not reacting to them but the eggs trigger the immune system to attack them and this can be very dangerous because the eggs can swim up to any part of the body including the intestine, bloodstream, lungs, or even the brain. At this point, it can cause all type of sickness ranging from diarrhea, wheezing, and worse of all seizures. According to the World Health Organization, in 2023, around 240 million people suffered from Schistosomiasis. Treatment using Praziquantel is very effective against developing the disease especially when treated in children so as to help with it from an early age but the best way to treat it is to prevent it. In the long run, access to clean water and environment is the best way to stop the spread of this disease.
Another disease is the African Trypanosomiasis which is common in Sub-Saharan Africa and it is caused by the Tsetse fly. The first phase of the sleeping sickness, the parasite reaches the peripheral nervous system which is followed by symptoms such as fever, itching, and joint pain. At this point, it is usually hard to diagnose because the symptoms can be caused by a plethora of things but as time goes on, the parasite invades the central nervous system causing the symptoms to be more severe leading to convulsion, confusion, and uncontrollable sleepiness. The sickness if left untreated can be deadly but we have treatment for it. Treatment covers both first and second stage using Suramin for first stage, fexinidazole and Melarsoprol and nifurtimox eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) for second stage.
There are still a number of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and a lot of them have gotten coverage now and treatments for them has been discovered. There are going to be diseases that would be discovered over time as a result of a lot of factors some caused by us and other just the earth doing its thing but being able to treat them and prevent them is what we should always look to find.
Reference
https://www.who.int/health-topics/schistosomiasis#tab=tab_1
https://www.cdc.gov/sleeping-sickness/treatment/index.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4758649/
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/medical-issues/sleeping-sickness