PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: The first “London Declaration”: The Commonwealth and its neglected tropical diseases
Peter J. Hotez, editor in chief of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases; Ashish Damania, scientific programmer at Baylor College of Medicine; Aparna Barua, manager of resource development & policy at Sabin Foundation Europe; and Jeffrey Stanaway, assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington

“…Together with DFID, the Commonwealth [of Nations] Secretariat has a unique opportunity to elevate the profile of [neglected tropical diseases (NTD)] elimination efforts by including NTDs on the agenda of the annual Commonwealth Health Ministers meeting in Geneva and the biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, to be hosted by the U.K. in 2018. As we mark the fifth anniversary of the London Declaration on NTDs this year, we increasingly recognize the urgent need for increased domestic country leadership across NTD programs and research investments. Without this political prioritization, human resources and finances at current levels will not be enough to meet the social and economic challenges these debilitating diseases present to the world’s poorest people. … Ultimately, the Commonwealth of Nations and its secretariat, DFID, and partner organizations could take on a powerful role in eliminating these ancient scourges of the world’s poor and perhaps the most common diseases of people living in poverty. In doing so, the Commonwealth and DFID could actually lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty” (4/27).