United to Combat NTDs - One Billion and Counting

	Watch the new campaign video.
	Watch as Haiti’s First Lady, Sophia Martelly, looks on as a nurse administers NTD drugs at a school in Haiti.
	See Haitian school kids sing a welcome song to kick off USAID’s One Billion and Counting campaign.
	Visit our Facebook album to see photos from the event.

USAID recently launched its One Billion and Counting: Accelerating Action to Eliminate NTDs by 2020 campaign to celebrate progress in the global fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

NTDs are a diverse group of diseases that affect more than 1 billion people – one-sixth of the world’s population – including an estimated 800 million children. NTDs almost exclusively impact poor people living in rural areas and urban slums in low-income countries.

On May 8, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health, Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, officially launched the campaign in Haiti, with a visit to a mass drug administration site at a school in Saint-Louis-du-Sud.

The One Billion and Counting campaign highlights the success of USAID’s NTD Program as we support the delivery of the ONE BILLIONTH treatment in 2014. The global campaign will run through May 23, 2014, with commemorative events in many of the countries where USAID supports NTD treatment programs.

USAID’s NTD Program is the largest public-private partnership collaboration in the Agency’s 50-year history. To date, it has enabled the delivery of $6.7 billion in donated medicines, representing one of the most cost-effective and innovative partnerships in global health.

• Learn more about the campaign and NTDs.
• Join Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez in thanking community NTD drug distributors, the true heroes of the One Billion and Counting campaign.
• Help us in recognizing “Unsung Heroes” and honor local community volunteers.
• Read USAID’s press release celebrating the campaign.
• View country profiles to learn more about USAID’s efforts in communities considered at risk of NTDs.
• Follow the social media campaign using #1BforNTDs.
• Visit our news and announcements page often to see how our program countries are celebrating this milestone in their communities and honoring their NTD heroes.

USAID’s NTD Program started in 2006 with a small investment in 5 countries, and since then has grown to cover 25 countries. With the delivery of over 1 billion treatments to date, the NTD program is successfully reaching vulnerable communities suffering from needless disability, childhood malnutrition, reduced school enrollment and hindered economic productivity.

Featured Tweets
	USAID Global Health @USAIDGH
Controlling #NTDs is a critical to meeting #MDGs of halving #poverty by 2015 http://ow.ly/w8j3M #1BforNTDs pic.twitter.com/vuzmISZMOy
>1B treatments delivered since the start of @USAID #NTD program in 2006, w/ 222M treatments in 2013 http://ow.ly/w8j3M #1BforNTDs

Photo credit: Christopher Glass/IMA World Health