In response to a growing awareness of the burden on these populations, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has laid out ten public health guidelines.

[16] These diseases result from four classes of causative pathogens: (i) protozoa (Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis); (ii) bacteria (Buruli ulcer, leprosy, trachoma, and yaws), (iii) helminths or metazoan worms (cysticercosis/taeniasis, dracunculiasis, echinococcosis, foodborne trematodiases, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis); and (iv) viruses (dengue, chikungunya, and rabies).

[38] Chagas disease can be prevented by avoiding insect bites through insecticide spraying, home improvement, bed nets, hygienic food, medical care, laboratory practices, and testing.

[63] Noma, an opportunistic bacterial infection causing gangrenous necrosis of the mouth,[67] was added to the World Health Organization's list of neglected tropical diseases in December 2023.

[76] The four major worm species responsible for soil-transmitted helminthiasis are Ascaris (roundworms), Trichuris (whipworm), the hookworms Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale, and Strongyloides stercoralis.

[77] Parasitic worms are generally transmitted via exposure to infected human feces and soil that are spread in the environment, for example, due to open defecation.

[80] Infection can be prevented through stricter meat-inspection standards, livestock confinement, improved hygiene and sanitation, health education, safe meat preparation, and identifying and treating human and pig carriers.

Other NTDs that carry heavy social stigma include onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, plague, Buruli ulcer, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease.

"[16] The principal aim of the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases was the elimination or eradication of dracunculiasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, trachoma, sleeping sickness, visceral leishmaniasis, and canine rabies within ten years of its launch in January 2012.

A provision of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 awards a transferable "priority review voucher" to any company that obtains approval for a treatment for one of the listed diseases.

[16][117] However, in areas where these infections are common, there is strong evidence that mass deworming campaigns do not have a positive effect on children's average nutritional status, levels of blood haemoglobin, cognitive abilities, performance at school, or survival.

They can be achieved through collaborative planning, delivery and evaluation of programmes, strengthening and sharing of evidence, and using monitoring tools to improve the equity of health services.

[125] Reasons why WASH plays an important role in NTD prevention and patient care include:[27] Biotechnology companies in the developing world have targeted neglected tropical diseases due to a need to improve global health.

Their major campaign, End7, aims to end seven of the most common NTDs (elephantiasis, river blindness, snail fever, trachoma, roundworm, whipworm, and hookworm) by 2020.

It allows organizations to share their intellectual property, compounds, expertise, facilities, and know-how royalty-free with qualified researchers worldwide working on new solutions for NTDs, malaria, and tuberculosis.

[145][146] In 2013, the Government of Japan, five Japanese pharmaceutical companies, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UNDP established a new public–private partnership, the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund.

They pledged over US$100 million to the fund over five years, to be awarded as grants to R&D partnerships across sectors in Japan and elsewhere, working to develop new drugs and vaccines for 17 neglected diseases, in addition to HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.

[154] It was signed as a support for the World Health Organization's 2021–30 road map for NTDs and the target of Sustainable Development Goal 3 to end NTD epidemics; and as a follow-up project of the London Declaration .

[158] Intersectional collaboration of poverty reduction policies and neglected tropical diseases creates cross-sector approaches to simultaneously address these issues.

[158] The six most common NTDs include soil-transmitted helminths (STHs)—specifically roundworms (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), and hookworms (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale)—schistosomiasis, trachoma, and lymphatic filariasis (LF).

The principle components of the approach involve 1) the measuring of premature mortality as well as disability, 2) the standardized usage of DALYs (disability-adjusted life years), and 3) widespread inclusion of diseases and injury causes with the estimation of missing data.

[170] However, the major stakeholders in NTD drug development—governments, foundations, pharmaceutical companies, academia, and NGOs—are involved in activities to help address the research and development shortfall and meet the many challenges presented by neglected tropical diseases.

[33] These seven are among a larger list of thirteen major NTDs: onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, leprosy, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), dracunculiasis, and Buruli ulcer.

[33] In their 2002 review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) databases and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, Troullier et al. found that 16 out of 1393 new chemical entities were approved for NTDs between 1975 and 1999 (~1%).

In short, NTD research and development is considered a high investment risk, given that NTDs predominantly affect the poor in low- and middle-income countries.

[171][173] Additional barriers include drug safety regulatory requirements, intellectual property protection problems, and poor infrastructure for distribution and sales.

[citation needed] Researchers have argued that, unlike most multinationals, small and mid-sized "Global South" companies see significant business opportunities in the development of NTD-related diagnostics, biologics, pharmaceuticals, and services.

[137] Potential actions to improve and expand this R&D capacity have been recommended, including expansion of human capital, increased private investment, knowledge and patent sharing, infrastructure building for business incubation, and innovation support.

Three drugs have earned NTD PRVs to date (December 2014): Coartem (by Novartis, for malaria); bedaquiline (by Janssen, for TB); and miltefosine (by Knight, for leishmaniasis).

[181] Several companies and scientific organizations are participating in open-source initiatives to share drug data and patent information over the web, and facilitate virtual collaboration on NTD research.