Editorial Neglected Infections of Poverty among the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic

• Main Author: Peter J. Hotez
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.356.2255

The neglected tropical diseases are not always exclusively tropical as defined by their endemicity between the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and in the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. Indeed, in previous articles, it has been pointed out that neglected infections occur wherever extreme poverty occurs [1], even in pockets of poverty in North America and Europe [2–4]. One of the more dramatic illustrations of poverty as the single most important determinant of neglected infections among human populations is the observation that these conditions occur among the poorest people living in the Arctic region [1]. The actual definition of Arctic region varies (Figure 1), with some experts basing it on the land and sea north of the Arctic Circle (66u 339 N), while others, the area north of the 10uC (50uF) July isotherm corresponding to the tree line [5]. There are seven countries with significant territory in the