Meanings of neglected diseases in the global health agenda: The place of populations and territories

Abstract

The global health agenda has made significant strides in neglected diseases. In a dynamic movement, throughout the past two decades, it has assumed different priorities, strategies and meanings. Nevertheless, important challenges persist in terms of geopolitical, economic, epistemological and social development. The designation and location of neglected diseases in certain territorial spaces and populations is historically related to some dynamics such as those of a colonial and capitalistic nature. They reveal continuities in the rationality of policies and actions, pervading asymmetries between peoples, institutions and nations. Although it has positively included the debate on neglected diseases, it can be argued the global agenda of public health has yet to assume and evoke the dimension of neglected bodies and populations with more theoretical and methodological vigor, by intensifying the dialogue between biomedical and political-economic fields. It means reinforcing the critical understanding of the historical vulnerabilities of individuals in the production of knowledge, as well as giving prominence and taking into account their ways of leading their lives in conjunmction with local public health priorities and practices.