Abstract
NTDs in the Heart of Darkness: The Democratic Republic of Congo's Unknown Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases
Highlights
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is a vast nation of almost one million square miles and more than 70 million people located in the heart of Africa (Figure 1)
The horrific effects of epidemic sleeping sickness were described in detail by Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness [2]. When it was known as Zaire during the last quarter of the twentieth century, the resulting dissolution of health systems and public health infrastructure contributed to the reemergence of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) [3]
The decades of conflict and breakdowns in health infrastructure have contributed to the high prevalence of several major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) [6], paradoxically conflict may not be a significant factor in the emergence of malaria and HIV/AIDS in DR
Summary
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is a vast nation of almost one million square miles (about the size of Greenland or one-quarter the size of the United States, and the second largest country in Africa) and more than 70 million people located in the heart of Africa (Figure 1). Our best information to date suggests that DR Congo may have the largest number of leprosy cases in Africa, and possibly the second or third highest number of cases of several high-prevalence NTDs, including intestinal helminth infections, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis [9,10].
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