Global report on neglected tropical diseases 2025

Mac Elliot E.
One Health in practice: towards effective and feasible rabies elimination in Cambodia.

Global report on neglected tropical diseases 2025
Stronger together, towards 2030

This document is the third in a series of global reports describing progress towards the 2030 targets set in Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030. It describes a wide range of activities, accomplishments and challenges across the portfolio of neglected tropical disease (NTDs) and across all six WHO regions.

The report presents epidemiological and programmatic data for 2023, which were gathered, compiled and analysed in 2024. In some cases, 2024 data are available and presented; in other cases, less recent information is included, when 2023 data are not available. In addition, it presents the main facts or events that occurred in 2024, and a highlight of those that took place in the first months of 2025.

In line with the road map’s companion document Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress of the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021−2030, this report includes quantitative information on the status of the overarching, cross-cutting and disease-specific global indicators. This is followed by qualitative information on each of the three road map pillars and on regional progress.

The conclusions of the report and way forward are further complemented by annexes on global financing for NTDs, status of donated medicines and health products for NTDs, articles on NTDs published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record in 2024, target product profiles published as of 31 December 2024, and the list of all global NTD reports published by WHO so far.

This report presents progress made in 2023–2024 towards the 2030 targets set in Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a road...

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Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
Child receiving treatment in Zanzibar against schistosomiasis.

Key facts about the report

The report at a glance

In 2025, the WHO Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Programme marks 20 years of action and data. Since its establishment in 2005, a concerted effort involving pharmaceutical manufacturers, development partners, philanthropic organizations, national health authorities and WHO has contributed to a measurable decline in the global burden of NTDs.

This report presents progress made in 2023–2024 towards the 2030 targets, including several important analytical updates:

Progress on all overarching, cross-cutting and disease-specific indicators, milestones and targets.
Analysis of disease burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), prevalence and mortality, as well as numbers of people affected by NTDs, detected and treated.
New perspectives on the financial risk associated with NTDs, highlighting their impoverishing effects on affected populations.
A detailed review of four thematic areas – diagnostics, monitoring and evaluation, access and logistics, and advocacy and funding – enabled by the Gap Assessment Tool (GAT).
Analysis of official development assistance for NTDs in the context of a constrained and evolving financial landscape.

A quantitative overview is provided of the status of each of the indicators included in the road map: four overarching indicators, 10 cross-cutting indicators and 55 disease-specific indicators.

Qualitative information is included on progress made regarding each of the three road map pillars: (i) accelerate programmatic action, (ii) intensify cross-cutting approaches, and (iii) change operating models and culture to facilitate country ownership.

A section is dedicated to regional and country progress.

Key facts about progress

Overall performance

In 2023, an estimated 1.495 billion people required interventions against NTDs, 122 million fewer than in 2022 and a 32% decrease from the 2010 baseline.
Between 2015 and 2021, the disease burden dropped from 17.2 million to 14.1 million DALYs, while NTD-related deaths decreased from an estimated 139 000 to 119 000. The number of people affected by NTDs declined from 1.9 billion in 1990 to just over 1 billion in 2021.
In 2023, 867.1 million people were treated for at least one NTD, 99% of whom received preventive chemotherapy.

In 2024, WHO acknowledged seven countries for eliminating an NTD.
Improvements were observed across several cross-cutting areas, including enhanced integration in the implementation of preventive chemotherapy, the broader adoption of integrated strategies for skin-NTDs, the increased inclusion of NTDs in national health strategies, plans and essential service packages, and the wider adoption of guidelines for management of NTD-related disabilities.
Nevertheless, progress slowed or stagnated in several key areas: in reducing deaths from vector-borne diseases, in expanding access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), in protecting population from catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures, in ensuring complete reporting on all NTDs and in collecting gender-disaggregated data.

Programmatic action

Implementation of the road map advanced on several fronts in 2024:

Technical innovation: WHO launched a process to define research and development priorities for NTDs, and prequalified six new medicine formulations, one active pharmaceutical ingredient and a new dengue vaccine.
Normative work: WHO released some 50 publications, including guidelines, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, regional strategic frameworks, and operational guidance covering different technical areas. Six target product profiles were released, bringing their total number to 27.
Operational support: as of end 2024, some 12 manufacturers donated 19 different types of NTD medicines; during 2011–2024, almost 30 billion tablets and vials were delivered to countries, of which 1.8 billion for treatments in 2024 alone; efforts were taken to improve management of donated medicines globally; in 2024, WHO facilitated the procurement of over 1 million diagnostics tests for five NTDs.
Advocacy and partnerships: NTDs remained visible in global forums such as G7 and G20. WHO hosted the Sasakawa Health Foundation’s Global Appeal for Leprosy, co-organized a high-level meeting on dracunculiasis eradication, and established or renewed partnerships with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (on rabies) and with the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (on access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics).
Capacity-building: WHO published 33 new online courses covering 23 technical topics in seven languages; in 2020–2024, the Organization released 102 courses covering 37 different topics in 15 languages and, in 2024, conducted the first field assessment of the AI-powered WHO Skin App in Kenya.

Cross-cutting approaches: efforts to strengthen integration of services, promote cross-sectoral coordination and facilitate mainstreaming within national health systems continued, notably through the multi-disease elimination and health campaign effectiveness initiatives and the integrated control and management of skin-NTDs. Work on mainstreaming data into national health management information systems progressed, and action was taken to harmonize approaches to data collection, including processes, platforms and reporting forms.
Climate change: the WHO Task Team on Climate Change, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Malaria conducted a comprehensive scoping review; in addition, WHO released a global preparedness and response plan for dengue and other Aedes-borne arboviruses.
Performance monitoring : findings from a qualitative assessment of progress towards the road map targets identified key needs and priorities across four of the 11 dimensions in the road map (diagnostics, monitoring and evaluation, access and logistics, and advocacy and funding).
Gender, equity and human rights (GER): rights-based advocacy gained traction at the World Health Assembly, the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations General Assembly, focusing on pesticide safety in the context of the health of Indigenous Peoples, and discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members.

Sustainability and financing trends

As of 2024, 14 African countries have prepared national plans to sustainably deliver services for NTDs through strengthened skills, reinforced capacities, enhanced multisectoral collaboration and improved domestic visibility and resource mobilization.

Programmes for NTDs continue to be severely disrupted by reduced availability of funding. Official development assistance decrease by 41% between 2018 and 2023, reinforcing the need for prioritization, domestic resource mobilization and strategic focus on high-impact interventions.