Neglected tropical diseases affect more than 1.5 billion people, close to one in six worldwide, yet they remain among the least visible and mediatized health problems on the planet. The medicines to treat most of them already exist, often for less than US$0.50 a dose. In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, host Hisham Allam speaks with Dr. Wendy Harrison, CEO of Unlimit Health, about why that arithmetic has not been enough, and what it will take to end diseases that feed on poverty and neglect. The label “Neglected Tropical Diseases” covers around 21 conditions that share little biologically but a great deal socially. “They’re often thought of as diseases of poverty, or diseases of really marginalized, neglected populations,” Harrison explains. The numbers are large and oddly unknown. Schistosomiasis alone affects more than 250 million people, several times the number living with HIV, while soil-transmitted worms reach over 1.5 billion. Children carry the heaviest burden, through anemia, stunting and chronic organ damage, and the damage rarely stops at the health dimension. By keeping children out of school and adults out of work, the diseases “really perpetuate this cycle of poverty,” she says. Unlimit Health works directly with ministries of health to treat schistosomiasis and three soil-transmitted worms, and Harrison is firm that everything it deploys must be “very well scientifically validated.” The reach is considerable: more than 30 million treatments in the last financial year, and over a billion across the organization’s history in some 15 countries. Delivery only works through long partnerships, she argues, citing an African proverb the team has adopted. “If you want to go quickly, you go alone,” she says, “but if you want to travel far, you must travel together.” In practice, that means decisions stay with the country, with programs designed so that authority “sits within the Ministry of Health,” rather than with outside funders. Money has never been an obstacle. NTD treatment is widely seen as “one of the top global investments,” a “best buy in global health.” But Harrison is wary of letting price settle the argument. “Cost-effectiveness is actually only part of the picture,” she says. “It’s quite a short-term measure.” For two decades, treatment ran through standalone, disease-specific campaigns that hit their coverage targets while sitting outside the everyday machinery of national health systems. That approach, she argues, “really missed the opportunity” to leave anything stronger behind. The organization is now folding treatment into platforms that already exist, such as Uganda’s child health days, so that monitoring, reporting and supply chains outlast any single campaign. The strategy matters more now because the money is tightening. Harrison says plainly that the collapse of USAID support “has had very, very profound effects,” pointing to a recent World Health Organization figure of more than 140 million people who missed the preventive treatment they were due. Rebuilding donor confidence, in her view, means demonstrating the long-term value of stronger systems rather than reciting cost-per-treatment figures, a case that has drawn interest even from the evidence-driven Effective Altruism movement. Listen to the full episode with Dr. Wendy Harrison of Unlimit Health on DevelopmentAid Dialogues. The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected
