The World Health Organization reported on Wednesday that 63 countries had eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD) as of June 2026, up from 42 at the end of 2020, according to CIDRAP. The figures appear in a midterm assessment of the WHO's 2021–2030 NTD road map. While the agency described the overall trajectory as major progress, it also said several diseases will miss their 2030 targets.
"Elimination of neglected tropical diseases is one of the standout success stories of global health," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press release, as quoted by CIDRAP. He cautioned that the achievements are not secure, saying the gains "could easily be lost" unless countries and partners increase domestic financing, maintain outside support and fold NTD services into primary health care. Tedros said the aim goes beyond disease elimination, to freeing communities from disability, disfigurement, death and poverty that carries across generations.
Why it matters
NTDs are a group of conditions that largely affect poor and rural communities and rarely draw the attention given to diseases with higher profiles. Elimination in a country means the disease is no longer a public health problem there, so each new country added to the list represents a lasting change for the people who were at risk. The midterm review matters because it measures the road map at its halfway point, when course corrections are still possible. It also sets the two findings side by side: steady expansion of elimination, and a financing picture that the WHO says puts many of the plan's 2030 goals in doubt.
What has improved
The WHO credited several specific advances, CIDRAP reports. Cases of sleeping sickness, also known as human African trypanosomiasis, have fallen 98% since 1999. Guinea worm disease reached a record low of 10 human cases in 2025. The number of people needing interventions against NTDs dropped to 1.41 billion in 2024, a decline of 36% since 2010 and 19% since 2020.
Coverage of the WHO report by other outlets carried the same mixed message. Health Policy Watch described the progress as uneven and fragile, and Anadolu Ajansı highlighted the agency's characterization of the gains as fragile. The WHO itself framed the findings around the need for sustained action.
Dengue and funding put targets at risk
Not every measure moved in the right direction. Dengue cases hit a record 15.1 million in 2024, and deaths from vector-borne NTDs have climbed overall, according to CIDRAP's account of the report. The WHO also said money for NTD work has fallen sharply in recent years, leaving resources roughly 30% below where they stood before the COVID-19 pandemic. That shortfall, the agency said, endangers many of the road map's 2030 objectives.
The funding warning sits alongside the director-general's call for countries to contribute more of their own money rather than depending on donors alone. The WHO's position, as reported, is that elimination efforts need to be built into routine primary care so they survive shifts in external support.
What to watch: whether domestic and donor financing for NTD programs recovers toward pre-pandemic levels, and whether dengue and other vector-borne diseases reverse course before the road map's 2030 endpoint.
