[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 55 (Thursday, April 16, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE CONTINUING THREAT OF NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 16, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, Neglected Tropical Diseases 
(NTDs) are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial diseases which blind, 
disable, disfigure, and sometimes kill sufferers among more than one 
billion of the world's poorest people, trapping the most marginalized 
communities in a cycle of poverty. The list ranges from chagas to 
rabies to leprosy to dengue fever. However, there are others not on 
this list of 17 diseases that also receive too little attention. These 
include such diseases as polio and smallpox, which have largely been 
eliminated from the planet, and often fatal, fortunately rare NTDs, 
such as kuru. Prior to last year, that list of rare diseases included 
Ebola.
   Even though not immediately fatal, these diseases can keep children 
from attending school and their parents from working, as well as 
resulting in excessive loss of blood by mothers during birth and low 
birth weight babies. These conditions constitute a significant hurdle 
to achieving economic growth and dilute the impact of foreign 
assistance programs.
   Last year, the world witnessed an Ebola disease pandemic that hit 
six African countries and spread to Spain, Scotland, and the United 
States. Furthermore, in recent years diseases such as dengue fever and 
chickugunya have spread into the United States. These and other 
tropical diseases most often victimize the poor who live in tropical 
climates--whether in Africa, Latin America or parts of the United 
States.
   Even in the face of the worldwide challenge these tropical diseases 
pose, the administration has proposed cutting the budget in this area 
by 17%. Yesterday's hearing examined the problem of neglected tropical 
diseases and U.S. current and potential efforts to address this 
problem.
   Eight NTDs account for almost all worldwide cases. Seven of them can 
be treated with low-cost medication that can be dispensed by non-health 
workers irrespective of disease status. Nearly 80% of all NTD cases are 
comprised of people carrying intestinal worms.
   In our June 27, 2013, hearing on NTDs, we learned the catastrophic 
nature of these preventable intestinal worm infections. So many of the 
problems we struggle with, such as difficult births and malnourishment, 
cannot be remedied without dealing with the infections themselves. 
These intestinal worms not only steal nutrients from their hosts; they 
steal their very futures by denying them a healthy life.
   We can no longer look at photos of happy young children standing in 
muddy water without shoes and not think of the possibility that they 
are losing their future even as we see them enjoy a break from the 
poverty in which they live. Yet we must understand that these are not 
merely diseases affecting people in faraway lands.
   Current U.S. law favors research on those diseases threatening the 
American homeland, but in today's world, diseases can cross borders as 
easily as those affected by them or the products imported into the 
United States. For example, chagas is most prevalent in Latin America, 
but it has been identified in patients in Texas, and cases of dengue 
fever have recently been reported in Florida. We cannot afford to 
assume that what may seem to be exotic diseases only happen to people 
in other countries. (And of course, even if that were true, we have a 
moral obligation to aid and assist those who contract these diseases 
and mitigate transmittal to the greatest extent possible). Ten years 
ago, West Nile Virus, another rare disease, was not seen in the United 
States or anywhere else outside the east African nation of Uganda, but 
in less than a decade, it has spread across this country and much of 
the rest of the world.
   More than 10,000 people have died of Ebola worldwide thus far. 
Although only one person died in this country due to that disease, we 
saw clearly how unprepared our medical services and the rest of the 
world were initially to deal with a rare disease that had previously 
been confined to isolated areas in Central Africa. There are other rare 
diseases--not to mention the recognized NTDs--that can cause havoc if 
they find their way to populated international transit areas as Ebola 
did last year.
   Meanwhile, far too many people live lives of quiet suffering from 
diseases we must fight more effectively. This is why I have introduced 
H.R. 1797, the End Neglected Tropical Diseases Act. Among other 
provisions, H.R. 1797 calls on the U.S. Agency for International 
Development (USAID) to modify its NTD programming with respect to rapid 
impact package treatments, school-based NTD programs and new approaches 
to reach the goals of eliminating NTDs. This bill also sets forth 
measures to expand the USAID program, including by establishment of a 
research and development program.
   In our effort to achieve reachable goals to prevent and eliminate 
NTDs, the projected 17% cut in funding for such projects in the FY 2016 
budget would pose a serious setback. I have appealed to the 
appropriators to maintain NTD spending at the most recent regular 
budget levels in FY 2014, and our hearing yesterday examined how our 
current NTD programs will be affected either by the planned budget cut 
or by maintaining the level of funding we saw before the Ebola response 
skewed the level of such funding.

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