Dr. Kishor Wasan takes a Holistic Approach to Neglected Tropical Diseases
Treating Neglected Tropical Diseases Is Not All About Providing Pharmaceuticals, Kishor Wasan Says
Science Director for Skymount Medical US, as well as Co-Founder of the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Urologic Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Kishor Wasan has invested much of his professional career in the study of effective treatments for neglected tropical diseases.
What Are Neglected Tropical Diseases?
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are conditions such as leishmaniasis, dengue fever, snakebite, and lymphatic filariasis, which are extremely common in the poorer nations of the tropics, but which have received relatively little attention from the pharmaceutical establishment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about one-sixth of the world’s population, over a billion people, suffers from one or more neglected tropical diseases. These conditions are rarely fatal but inflict lifetime disabilities, disfigurement, and disadvantages.
Survivors of neglected tropical diseases may suffer blindness. They may fail to get an education. They may be chronically fatigued and unable to work or to work enough to improve their economic circumstances. NTDs perpetuate the cycle of poverty in the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Pharmaceuticals for NTDs Are Not Enough, Kishor Wasan Says
Robust, affordable, transportable, and safe pharmaceutical interventions for NTDs are a tremendous benefit to vulnerable populations. Dr. Kishor Wasan has led research funded by the Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development via the Bill/Melinda Gates Foundation, which is targeted at developing a safe and efficacious oral lipid-based amphotericin B formula for treating leishmaniasis and systemic fungal infections.
But Dr. Wasan does not believe that pharmaceuticals alone adequately address the challenge of neglected tropical diseases. Eradicating neglected tropical diseases also requires addressing diseases’ social and economic determinants.
A new vaccine cannot control an epidemic, Kishor Wasan points out if it is not available to people of all socioeconomic groups, races, genders, and adherents of any or no religion. A novel therapeutic will not be effective if it cannot be transported to the communities where it is administered. Even pharmaceuticals successfully delivered to the communities they are targeted are of no value if the public does not trust them and knows they are available.
Professor Wasan Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan argues that solutions to the problems posed by neglected tropical diseases are most appropriately considered in holistic terms. Adequate housing, equitable geographic access to medical care, consistent nutrition, and timely pharmaceuticals are foundational to tropical health. But society’s response to neglected tropical diseases must be more than just the charitable distribution of new medications.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Are Taking on Global Significance
The world is increasingly interconnected, Dr. Wasan points out, and diseases that were once unheard of outside of the tropics now appear with some regularity in the United States. They even attract concern in Canada. With climate change, neglected tropical diseases will increasingly become neglected global diseases. Taking a holistic view of tropical health will bring the best possible health outcomes for the people of the developing world and protect the people of more advanced nations from diseases for which their healthcare systems are not yet prepared.