"What do you call traditional medicine that works?" "Medicine." This old joke contains more than a milligram of truth. When, for example, Tu Youyou, a Chinese chemist, began testing the sweet wormwood used in local herbal remedies as a cure for malaria, her isolation of artemisinin saved millions of lives and earned her the Nobel prize for medicine in 2015.But not every folk cure is so closely examined—nor is every condition. Over 1.7bn people, most living in the world's poorest countries, are affected by a group of 20 illnesses known as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDS). These often lead to disability and place a heavy burden on health-care systems badly equipped to deal with them.

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“管用的传统医药叫什么？”“药。”这个古老的笑话包含了一毫克以上的真理。例如，当中国化学家屠呦呦开始测试当地的草药中用于治疗疟疾的青蒿素时，她分离出的青蒿素挽救了数百万人的生命，并为她赢得了2015年的诺贝尔医学奖。但并非每一种民间疗法、每一种疾病都能得到如此细致的检验。有超过17亿人受到20种被称为“被忽视的热带病”(NTDS)的影响，其中大多数生活在世界上最贫穷的国家。这些疾病通常会导致残疾，同时也给设备简陋的医疗系统带来了沉重的负担。

They are referred to as "neglected" for a reason. A study published in 2009, in International Health, estimated that they received only 0.6% of the money given by rich countries to poor ones for health purposes. Things have not improved since then. A recent report by Policy Cures Research, an international think-tank, estimates the cash available for treating NTDS has been flat for a decade, with less allocated to all of them collectively than either malaria or tuberculosis receives alone.

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用“被忽视”形容它们是有原因的。2009年发表在《国际卫生》杂志上的一项研究估计，贫穷国家所获取的由富裕国家出于卫生目的向其提供的资金只有0.6%。之后情况并未好转。国际智库“政策治疗研究”最近的一份报告估计，用于治疗NTDS的可用资金十年来未曾增减，而全部用于治疗NTDS的资金比单独用于治疗疟疾或肺结核的资金还要少。

This lack of resources has consequences. In Ghana, though estimated rates of lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis) dropped by 88% between 2010 and 2018, those of schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia) and onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness) rose by 39% and 81% respectively. However, Dorcas Osei-Safo of the University of Ghana has a plan to fight back. Herbal medicine is important in the country. Indeed, its Food and Drugs Authority has already approved several herbal remedies for use against diseases including malaria. She intends to build on this approach.

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资源不足会带来一定的后果。据估计，淋巴丝虫病(又称象皮病)的发病率在2010年至2018年间下降了88%，但血吸虫病(又称血吸虫病)和盘尾丝虫病(又称河盲症)的发病率分别上升了39%和81%。不过，来自加纳大学的多尔卡丝·奥塞-萨福倒是有一个反攻计划。草药在这个国家很重要。其实，美国食品和药品管理局已经批准了几种用于治疗包括疟疾在内的疾病的草药，她打算以这种方法为基础。