Würzburg, March 13, 2025 - In the session Neglected Parasites and One Health at the joint conference of the German Society of Parasitology, the British Society for Parasitology and the Swiss Society for Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Prof. Dr. Achim Hörauf, spokesperson of the German Network against Neglected Tropical Diseases (DNTDs) and Director of the Institute of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the University Hospital Bonn, warned of the difficult financial situation in this field of research.
“The next few years will be decisive in determining whether the successes in the fight against NTDs can be continued and possibly some of the diseases eliminated, or whether the work of many years will be undone. The big challenge is the funding freeze by the US agency USAID, but also the German government's announcement to cut funding for development cooperation. This does not bode well,’ said Hörauf in his presentation.
Conference President Prof. Dr. Markus Engstler, member of the DNTDs, regretted in his opening speech that some colleagues from the USA were unable to attend due to current developments. He underlined the importance of international cooperation and emphasized that conferences such as this one contribute significantly to strengthening scientific excellence in Europe.
In the NTD session, Prof. Hörauf also referred to the important work and cooperation of the international NTD networks, briefly presenting the work of the Swiss Alliance against NTDs and the UK Coalition against NTDs.
