Combating Neglected Tropical Diseases

Just 2 Miles northeast of sleek downtown skyscrapers, across the Buffalo Bayou River from the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park, lies a landscape greener than most of the urban sprawl, but absent the charm of typical Southern suburbia. The Fifth Ward of Houston, TX, is dotted with a patchwork of homes with screenless windows, many desperately clinging to their beams, surrounded by twisted chain link fences patrolled by trotting packs of skeletal stray dogs. Broken roads are lined with piles of abandoned tires, and pools of stagnant, dirty water. It is here that Dr. Peter Hotez (
Figure 1
) illustrates one of the wealthiest countries in the world is not immune to poverty and its associated medical crises.