A decade after WHO recognition, mycetoma is still one of the world’s most neglected diseases

Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, a physician leading mycetoma work at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, reflects on a decade since the World Health Organization formally acknowledged the disease.

She recounts meeting Tesfaye, a man from north‑central Ethiopia who first felt a thorn in his foot as a teenager. The injury later developed into mycetoma, a chronic infection that erodes skin, tissue and bone, often ending in amputation and severe social stigma.

Mycetoma is caused by certain fungi or bacteria and has been reported in more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Despite its wide reach, the condition remains largely ignored by health systems, leaving patients to rely on traditional healers who lack effective treatments.

Although WHO recognition a ten‑year ago sparked some research advances, progress is fragile. Nyaoke‑Anoke warns that the next decade will determine whether mycetoma stays a story of neglect or becomes a model of coordinated global action.