With more than one hundred and seventy countries and territories globally being endemic with a number of Neglected Diseases (NTDs), and more than ten among which exhibit skin conditions: Knowledge gaps breed myths, and discrimination thus thrives – limiting socio-economic options and upsetting the psychosocial buoyance of affected persons, and their families. Knowledge shared through recent studies and dialogues of global stakeholders on the subject have highlighted that external drivers of stigma related to Skin NTDs are often the community, health staff, structures, laws and policies; thus, underscoring a strong need for engendering positive change through information, education, high level advocacy and actions of opinion leaders. Such studies and dialogues have established that to advance efforts to eliminate discrimination of persons affected with Skin NTDs, it is important to understand the complexity of the stigma, making it expedient to identify as many myths [associated with these conditions] as possible [globally] to create comprehensive knowledge-base as in instrument for heightened enlightenment & advocacy. This paper posits that mapping all [or as many as possible] of these myths could serve as a strong tool amidst efforts of global and local NTDs stakeholders to eliminate discrimination of persons affected with Skin NTDs; and thus, proposes that some actions be undertaken by Skin NTDs stakeholders towards global research to map myths associated with Skin NTDs. Global stakeholders can work to constitute and commission a research team that will create [simple] research indicators to harness feedback from Country NTD programs and implementing partner NGDOs about all myths encountered in their work with local communities. Such effort can create a data collection tool with capacity to collect data from multiple countries and selectively parse data into each country-specific dashboard [via solutions like Kobo Toolbox] and invite all country NTD programs to participate in the research by cascading the research data collection tool to all sub-district NTD programs, and local NTD-NGDOs. Such research could benefit from preparation of comprehensive reports [inclusive of a section on data-use-ethics-guide by an expert panel], make publications and present same at key NTD [and global health] events towards advocating for its use in breaking down systems and community level barriers. This paper calls all stakeholders to action, in line with the 2030 roadmap.
BT - Journal of Infectious Diseases & Case Reports DA - 07/2025 IS - 3 LA - ENG M3 - Article N2 -With more than one hundred and seventy countries and territories globally being endemic with a number of Neglected Diseases (NTDs), and more than ten among which exhibit skin conditions: Knowledge gaps breed myths, and discrimination thus thrives – limiting socio-economic options and upsetting the psychosocial buoyance of affected persons, and their families. Knowledge shared through recent studies and dialogues of global stakeholders on the subject have highlighted that external drivers of stigma related to Skin NTDs are often the community, health staff, structures, laws and policies; thus, underscoring a strong need for engendering positive change through information, education, high level advocacy and actions of opinion leaders. Such studies and dialogues have established that to advance efforts to eliminate discrimination of persons affected with Skin NTDs, it is important to understand the complexity of the stigma, making it expedient to identify as many myths [associated with these conditions] as possible [globally] to create comprehensive knowledge-base as in instrument for heightened enlightenment & advocacy. This paper posits that mapping all [or as many as possible] of these myths could serve as a strong tool amidst efforts of global and local NTDs stakeholders to eliminate discrimination of persons affected with Skin NTDs; and thus, proposes that some actions be undertaken by Skin NTDs stakeholders towards global research to map myths associated with Skin NTDs. Global stakeholders can work to constitute and commission a research team that will create [simple] research indicators to harness feedback from Country NTD programs and implementing partner NGDOs about all myths encountered in their work with local communities. Such effort can create a data collection tool with capacity to collect data from multiple countries and selectively parse data into each country-specific dashboard [via solutions like Kobo Toolbox] and invite all country NTD programs to participate in the research by cascading the research data collection tool to all sub-district NTD programs, and local NTD-NGDOs. Such research could benefit from preparation of comprehensive reports [inclusive of a section on data-use-ethics-guide by an expert panel], make publications and present same at key NTD [and global health] events towards advocating for its use in breaking down systems and community level barriers. This paper calls all stakeholders to action, in line with the 2030 roadmap.
PY - 2025 SP - 1 EP - 4 T2 - Journal of Infectious Diseases & Case Reports TI - Towards Eliminating Discrimination of Persons Affected with Skin NTDs: The Need for Global Research to Map Associated Myths UR - https://www.onlinescientificsresearch.com/articles/towards-eliminating-discrimination-of-persons-affected-with-skin-ntds-the-need-for-global-research-to-map-associated-myths.pdf VL - 6 SN - ISSN: 2634 - 8861 ER -