GHIT Fund Launches "NTDpedia" to Help Turn Apathy Into Action Against Neglected Tropical Diseases

The interactive educational website makes NTDs understandable
to a general audience, the first step toward public support that drives R&D
for the 1.5 billion people affected by these diseases

TOKYO, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund announced the launch of "NTDpedia: Your Guide to Neglected Tropical Diseases." Designed as an accessible, visually intuitive digital encyclopedia, NTDpedia aims to address a root cause of neglect: Most people have never heard of these diseases. Awareness is the first step; people cannot advocate for, fund, or research a disease they do not know exists.
Website URL: https://www.ghitfund.org/ntdpedia/en

Overcoming Indifference: Why NTDpedia Matters Today
While Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) sets a clear mandate to end epidemics of NTDs by 2030 under the banner "Leaving No One Behind," NTDs remain severely underfunded and overlooked. Affected populations are trapped in a vicious cycle: Poverty breeds disease and disease deepens poverty. Lack of clean water and sanitation elevates infection risks, while inadequate healthcare infrastructure leads to severe complications, economic loss, social stigma, and further marginalization.

"The greatest barrier to ending NTDs is not just the lack of medical tools but also lack of awareness and societal apathy," said Osamu Kunii, CEO of the GHIT Fund. "NTDpedia was built to transform a distant problem into something people can understand and then care about, which is the first step toward meaningful global action."

Key Features of NTDpedia: Connecting Global Challenges to Daily Life
Supervised by world-renowned tropical medicine and global health expert Prof. Kenji Hirayama from Nagasaki University, NTDpedia covers the 21 disease groups recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), including viral, bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections, as well as snakebite envenoming and noma.

To help users intuitively navigate and relate to these complex conditions, the platform introduces two distinct visual discovery frameworks:

1. Four Curated Key Phrases to Personalize the Cause:
   • Climate change: Highlighting diseases that expand into new geographies, including high-income nations, as a warming climate combines with global travel and trade
   • Poor sanitation and poverty: Showing how unsafe water, poor sanitation, and crowded housing keep these diseases circulating and how illness in turn deepens poverty.
   • Children at high risk: Highlighting diseases that fall hardest on children, affecting growth, schooling, and lifelong health.
   • Once common in Japan: Revealing that several of these diseases were once present in Japan and no longer remain in living memory.
2. Categorized Visual Transmission: Diseases are categorized by how they spread and what causes them: parasites, bacteria, viruses, insects, other animals, water/soil, and other routes.

Catalyzing R&D and Global Action
The GHIT Fund envisions NTDpedia becoming a resource for anyone curious about these diseases, from students and teachers to companies and advocates. Apathy often reflects unfamiliarity rather than indifference. By making these diseases visible and understandable, the GHIT Fund aims to build public support that drives investment in research and development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for NTDs.

*Please note that this website was created for general readers who may not have background expertise in the field. Estimates and figures regarding NTDs can differ across various sources; therefore, the content herein has been compiled from multiple references. We kindly ask users to verify the latest data and primary sources prior to referencing this information.

The GHIT Fund is a Japan-based international public-private partnership (PPP) fund that was formed between the Government of Japan, multiple pharmaceutical companies, the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The GHIT Fund invests in and manages an R&D portfolio of development partnerships aimed at addressing neglected diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases, which afflict the world's vulnerable and underserved populations. In collaboration with global partners, the GHIT Fund mobilizes Japanese industry, academia, and research institutes to create new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for malaria, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases. https://www.ghitfund.org/

For more information, contact:
Katy Lenard at +1-202-494-2584 or klenard@burness.com
Eriko Mugitani at +81-36441-2032 or eriko.mugitani@ghitfund.org