Fighting Neglected Diseases: Interview with Prof. Achim Hörauf
At the end of January 2022, 50 landmark buildings around the world in 25 countries, in Tokyo and Kigali, in Berlin, New York City or Kinshsa, were lit up - to draw attention to the more than 1.7 billion people around the world suffering from neglected tropical diseases or NTDS. The day also marked the adoption of a new roadmap for the fight against these diseases, the so-called Kigali Declaration. It’s already been signed by a number of African countries, and many other nations are on board, including Germany. They’re committed to reducing the number of people affected by diseases that cripple, kill and debilitate millions every year - mostly poor people in tropical countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Among the 20 Neglected NTDS are very different diseases, like for instance Dengue fever and river blindness, Helminth, Schistosomiasis or Scabies. While a lot of progress has been achieved in the past decades, including the development of new drugs, there are still many challenges. To find out more, we talk Prof Achim Hörauf. He heads the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology (IMMIP) at the University Hospital in Bonn.
Mexiko: International Projects dividing Indigenous Communities
In Mexico, many indigenous communities are divided over international companies that go into their regions to make profit. Of course, when a new factory is built, local people are usually promised jobs and development. But in many cases, there are also social and environmental concerns. And not everyone welcomes plants that could also contaminate the area, for example in the case of an ammonia plant, when people fear environmental impacts. The pressure can divide whole communities - and prompt bitter arguments over incentives, corruption and even violent threats, as Anne Demmer and Wolf-Dieter Vogel discovered.