BOSTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggested that 13 infectious tropical diseases, including hookworm and African sleeping sickness, could be treated with low-cost medications.
Dr. Madhuri Reddy, a geriatrician at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, said such diseases affect more than 1 billion people worldwide, most living in extreme poverty.
While inexpensive oral medications are available, they aren't often accessible to people living in remote areas.
"Despite the huge impact of neglected tropical diseases worldwide, the ability to treat them is largely unknown in the medical community, and there is little public awareness of and response to this problem," she said.
Reddy and colleagues reviewed 29 randomized control trials of oral drug treatments -- most costing less than 5 cents per dose. They found existing oral medications can be used to treat two or more of the most prevalent diseases simultaneously and four of the seven most prevalent maladies can be treated with a single oral drug combination.
The study is detailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
