Opinion: ‘Neglected diseases’ are anything but neglected by the billion-plus people living with them

I dislike the term “neglected tropical diseases.” This collection of communicable diseases is neglected — a pejorative term — only by countries unaffected by them. They aren’t neglected by the 1 billion or more individuals afflicted with them, the millions who die from them, or the countries in which they live.

The World Health Organization as “neglected.” Gaining consensus around what constitutes these diseases is as difficult as pronouncing dracunculiasis, schistosomiasis, or chromoblastomycosis. What’s more, there are diseases that kill tens or hundreds of thousands of people every year that don’t make the list, like hepatitis E, which kills 70,000 pregnant women a year, and group A streptococcus (the cause of strep