The concept of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is built around low socioeconomic status (SES) and poverty as the most important social determinants. Poor health is not confined to poor people, but the burden of poor health is disproportionately greater within poor communities. A combination of insufficient social programs, unfair economic arrangements, and corrupt politics creates conditions that allow poverty to obstruct health. Within this paradigm is the impact of violent conflict. Conflict not only facilitates the relationship between poverty and poor health, but it also is a social determinant of health in its own right. In other words, violent conflict enables poor health outcomes independent of poverty. Here, we quantify the overlap among countries with conflict and countries with high prevalence of NTDs, and we discuss how violent conflict may undermine NTD control efforts, most notably for the 10 diseases slated for control, elimination, or eradication by the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs...
Language: en
", language="en", issn="1935-2727", doi="10.1371/journal.pntd.0006136", url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006136" }