Promoting civic engagement with neglected tropical disease education

Kevin M. Bonney

Abstract
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect over one billion people globally creating a public health burden that has far reaching implications for the fields of economics, politics, sociology, and science. Educating students and the public about relevant risks, implications, and treatments is a key component of reducing the public health burden associated with NTDs. Furthermore, teaching and learning about NTDs provides myriad opportunities to incorporate interdisciplinary teaching, active learning, and civic engagement into a broad range of courses throughout grade school, high school, college. However, despite the importance of NTD-focused education, few educational programs sufficiently emphasize this topic. Presented here is an overview of NTDs, a brief rationale for broadening inclusion of NTDs in a variety of educational settings, and a series of suggestions for promoting civic engagement with NTD education.

Keywords
Neglected tropical diseases; Educational Biology; Microbiology; Parasitology.

DOI
10.21472/bjbs.030502

Full text
PDF

References
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