The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to reducing the prevalence of Neglected Tropical Diseases in the country.

Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, Director and National Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Diseases Elimination Programme, Federal Ministry of Health disclosed this on Saturday in Ibadan.

He was speaking at a media dialogue organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in collaboration with the UNICEF.

Anyaike said that the government had made some achievement which includes the donation of medicines used annually in production, shipping and other logistics.

Others are more than 200 million cumulative treatments was achieved in 2019 while the U.S. Center for Disease Control has set up a multifunctional laboratory in-country at the centre for analysis of NTD-specific samples.

Anyaike added that government had also strengthened the NTD Supply Chain Management (SCM) and development of Logistics Management and Information System (LMIS) tools.

“It is estimated that 122 million persons, that is 2 out of every 3 Nigerians, are at risk of one of these NTDs. Of this number, 20 per cent are pre-school age children, 28 per cent school age children and 52 per cent are adults”.

Anyaike said that Nigeria now contributes 40 per cent of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) burden globally and carries roughly 25 per cent of Africa’s burden.

NTDs are diverse group of communicable diseases that prevail in tropical and subtropical conditions in 149 countries – affect more than one billion people and cost developing economies billions of dollars every year.

Populations living in poverty, without adequate sanitation and in close contact with infectious vectors and domestic animals and livestock are those worst affected.

He said the diseases are called ‘neglected’ because they tend to affect the world’s poorest, and received less attention than other diseases.