Some of the world’s major challenges are receiving a lot of attention. Climate change, war and immigration are constantly in the news and receive major financial support from states and private charities. Other important issues such as tuberculosis and nutrition receive less attention and attention, but are among the top global priorities, to which funding is also allocated.
Even the aptly named ‘neglected tropical diseases’ such as rabies, river blindness and leprosy, which kill 200,000 people each year in poorer countries, have their own programmes within the World Health Organisation.
But there is a challenge that we hear little to nothing about, that affects more than 1 billion people and that could be tackled efficiently. We might reasonably call it the “neglected huge disease.”
