enormous impact in terms of disease burden and quality of life. NTDs cause the loss of up to 534,000 lives and up to 57,000,000 disability-adjusted life years each year. NTDs surpass both malaria and tuberculosis in causing greater loss of life-years to disability and premature death. Many NTDs cause disfigurement and disability, in addition to significant morbidity and mortality, leading to stigma, social discrimination, and societal marginalization. (4) NTDs create an economic burden of billions of dollars through the loss of productivity and high costs of health care required for treatment. People afflicted by NTDs are less productive than their healthy counterparts. NTDs jeopardize the ability of people to attend work and school, or to produce at full capacity. For example, controlling 1 NTD (hookworm) in children can result in a 43 percent increase in future wage earnings. (5) The social, economic, and health burden of NTDs falls primarily on low- and middle-income countries, where access to safe water, sanitation, and health care is limited. At least 100 countries face 2 endemic NTD burdens, and 30 countries carry six or more endemic NTDs. (6) NTDs are not confined to the developing world, however. Several NTD outbreaks have been reported in the United States and other developed countries, especially among the poor. In the United States, NTDs disproportionately affect people living in poverty, and especially minorities, including up to 2,800,000 African-Americans with toxocariasis and 300,000 or more people, who are mostly Hispanic-Americans, with Chagas disease. (7) Many NTDs can be controlled, prevented, and even eliminated using low-cost, effective, and feasible solutions. Understanding the economic burden of NTDs on productivity and health care costs can help to assure governments and donors that the resources directed toward NTDs represent a good investment. (8) Research and development efforts are immediately needed for all NTDs, especially those for which limited or no treatment currently exists.