neglected global health stories

“It is unjust that people don’t care about this disease.” Writer Amy Maxmen’s words keep surfacing in my thoughts. She said this after her trip to Sudan to report on mycetoma, a flesh-eating, bone-destroying disease that spreads misery across 23 countries from Mexico to India. Although it’s exacted a horrific toll on human lives for centuries, very little is known about its prevalence or etiology. Bacterial or fungal in origin, the disease starts with a skin infection that over time grotesquely swells feet and other appendages. It erupts in painful lesions on the skin even as it destroys the bones within. Often the only treatment is amputation. Sometimes the disease proves fatal...

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