Noma, a neglected disease: A viewpoint article

Activities include providing care for patients with acute noma (antibiotics, oral hygiene, treatment for underlying morbidities, wound debridement, and wound dressing), continuous care for patients with noma sequelae (surgical interventions and postoperative care), integrated hospital-based services (nutrition, mental health, physiotherapy, lab services, water and sanitation, and vaccinations), and community-based services (follow-up, active case finding, awareness raising, health promotion, and education). Patients with noma thus remain invisible within their communities, the health systems that are supposed to serve them, and the global community, feeding into the poor understanding of this disease and its subsequent neglect. To gain a better understanding of the impact of noma, we calculated the DALYs (years of life lost (number of deaths × standard life expectancy at age of death in years) + years lost due to disability (number of prevalent cases × disability weight)) for noma using the noma prevalence estimates attained from an MSF-supported community-based prevalence study in Sokoto and Kebbi States, northwest Nigeria (3,300 per 100,000 or 129,120 cases [8]) and the disability weight of cleft (disfigurement level 2 from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study (0.115) [9]). Due to the dire ramifications of noma, the first action point, and the ideal approach to control the disease, is through prevention—and removing the main risk factors for infection.