According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "neglected tropical diseases" (or NTDs) refers to a diverse group of communicable diseases that are prevalent in tropical and subtropical conditions and affect over one billion people annually, often in the most underdeveloped regions of the world. The term "neglected" is used to differentiate these diseases from the three communicable diseases that typically receive a much greater portion of international research and treatment funding: HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. While there is neither a precise nor exhaustive list of all neglected tropical diseases, as of 2017 the WHO had prioritized twenty such diseases: Buruli ulcers, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya, dracunculiasis, echinococcosis, yaws, foodborne trematodes, African trypanosomiasis, leischmaniasis, leprosy, lympathic filariasis, onchocerciasis ("river blindness"), rabi
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