# data[].attributes.body
Doctors explains diagnosis and treatment of mycetoma disease

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mycetoma / Maduromycosis / Madura Foot / Subcutaneous mycoses / Dr. Blessy / Tamil / Microbiology

# data[].attributes.headline
Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative Video

# data[].attributes.subject
Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative Video

# data[].attributes.body
Award-winning film highlights mycetoma disease and new treatment opportunities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mycetoma: Hope for a Devastating Neglected Disease

# data[].attributes.body
WHO partners with world organizations to form the Global Mycetoma Working Group

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Global Mycetoma Working Group, a network of institutions and organizations working together to address the disease through advocacy and networking, includes the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Erasmus University Medical Centre (Netherlands) and the University of Khartoum (Sudan). Other partners include DND i and the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, both of which are supporting research and development on treatment and diagnostics. Through the integrated skin-NTD approach, WHO is working with partners and health ministries to integrate control of mycetoma into awareness of skin diseases and surveillance. WHO has convened a number of meetings to create a platform for stakeholders to share experience and foster collaboration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fostering partnerships and coordination for the control of mycetoma

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Global Mycetoma Working Group, a network of institutions and organizations working together to address the disease through advocacy and networking, includes the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Erasmus University Medical Centre (Netherlands) and the University of Khartoum (Sudan).

# data[].attributes.body
CDC helps health professionals treat mycetoma disease

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Information for Health Professionals | Fungal Diseases | CDC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mycetoma is a rare implantation infection caused by any of several different types of microorganisms that causes progressively debilitating yet painless subcutaneous tumor-like lesions, usually on the extremities. Low-income agrarian populations in tropical regions are primarily affected; endemic ar…

# data[].attributes.headline
Bakhiet (2018) Approach to Mycetoma Management 

# data[].attributes.subject
Bakhiet (2018) Approach to Mycetoma Management 

# data[].attributes.body
Peer reviewed article on how healthcare workers can manage neglected disease

# data[].attributes.headline
Fahal (2018) Mycetoma: The Spectrum of Clinical Presentation 

# data[].attributes.subject
Fahal (2018) Mycetoma: The Spectrum of Clinical Presentation 

# data[].attributes.body
Peer reviewed article on the symptoms of mycetoma disease in poor communities

# data[].attributes.headline
Dafallah (2019) Fighting off the Flesh Eater Global Health NOW

# data[].attributes.subject
Dafallah (2019) Fighting off the Flesh Eater Global Health NOW

# data[].attributes.body
Mycetoma disables thousands of low-income adults in Sub-Saharan Africa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If he had known about the risk and received treatment right away, the outcome could have been very different. Early detection and management of mycetoma has been proven to have a tremendously positive impact on prognosis, markedly reducing morbidity and disability rates. Yet until it recently made the WHO list of Neglected Tropical Diseases , mycetoma was largely unknown in many parts of the world-prompting Global Health NOW to highlight the devastating disease in its first Untold Global Health Stories Contest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fighting off the Flesh Eater: Controlling Mycetoma in Sub-Saharan Africa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If he had known about the risk and received treatment right away, the outcome could have been very different. Early detection and management of mycetoma has been proven to have a tremendously positive impact on prognosis, markedly reducing morbidity and disability rates.

# data[].attributes.headline
Zijlstra (2016) Mycetoma: A Long Journey from Neglect 

# data[].attributes.subject
Zijlstra (2016) Mycetoma: A Long Journey from Neglect 

# data[].attributes.body
Peer reviewed article on bacterial disease and treatment

# data[].attributes.headline
Simpson (2015) Neglected Diseases Global Health NOW

# data[].attributes.subject
Simpson (2015) Neglected Diseases Global Health NOW

# data[].attributes.body
Simpson explains the consequences and neglect of mycetoma disease

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"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.

Because it afflicts the very poor and doesn't threaten rich countries, the world doesn't seem to care. Mycetoma is so neglected that it's not even on the official WHO list of 17 neglected diseases.

So why should we devote a considerable portion of our limited resources to a 3-part series on such a neglected disease? Early this year, Global Health NOW and our friends at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health launched the 2015 Global Health Untold Stories Contest. Global Health NOW committed to sending a journalist to report on the untold story of the year. After reviewing 170 nominations with our CUGH colleagues, we selected mycetoma.

The disease, nominated by University of Toronto students Annie Liang and Simran Dhunna, hit all of our main criteria. It is a disease or condition with significant impact on global health; it is largely ignored by the mainstream media; and it is in desperate need of better solutions.

After months of preparation and research, in Geneva with the WHO and elsewhere, Maxmen spent 10 days in Sudan in early November. (Most of this project's cost was supported by a generous donor.) In Khartoum, she met with Professor Ahmed Fahal, who has spent three decades helping mycetoma victims, seeking answers and fighting for global attention. She interviewed people who have lost limbs and livelihoods to the disease. From this research, Maxmen has crafted three stories:

Our hope is that this series not only makes mycetoma a well-told global health story in 2016 but also motivates the WHO to add the disease to its list of neglected diseases-a critical step to prompt funding agencies to support much-needed research.

As Amy Maxmen's stories vividly demonstrate, mycetoma and its long-suffering victims deserve a sliver of the world's attention and scientific resources.

Brian W. Simpson, MPH
Editor-in-Chief
Global Health NOW
bsimpso1@jhu.edu
Please join the thousands of subscribers who rely on Global Health NOW summaries and exclusive articles for the latest public health news. Sign up for our free weekday enewsletter, and please share the link with friends and colleagues: Subscribe to GHN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"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.