Kenya, in 2011, became the first country in Africa to launch a national strategic plan that would help in bringing to the limelight neglected tropical diseases, which had become a public health concern at the time.
So far, two five-year strategic plans have been drafted and the last one was in 2016 running through to 2021.
For a disease to be classified as neglected, the abandonment must have been so glaring yet the afflicted continued to suffer in silence.
In 2003, American scientist Peter Hotez and his colleagues coined the phrase neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). At the time all the attention had been on malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids. There was little or no funding directed to NTDs.
