Baylor at the Vatican – Hope Abounds

Dr. Peter Hotez, University Professor of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor and President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (as well as Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine), helped to kick off the first-ever Vatican conference on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and rare diseases with a keynote address on Thursday, November 10.

In his speech, which was delivered before more than 500 conference participants from around the world, Dr. Hotez explained that he was honored to present about what he calls “the most important diseases you have never heard of.” One in six people in the world have at le vatican ast one NTD, making NTDs the most common diseases of the poor. “These are diseases borne of poverty and conflict – two challenges at the heart of the social mission of the Catholic Church.” He explained the significance of eradicating NTDs: “It is clear that NTDs are an affront to human dignity and obstacle to human flourishing. No one should suffer unnecessarily from these ancient diseases in the twenty-first century… To succeed in the effort to end extreme poverty, the global community must make a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable by scaling up the effort to fight NTDs. One of the most basic things we can do to overcome what Pope Francis has termed the ‘globalization of indifference’ and advance the common good is to take decisive action against NTDs: expanding treatment coverage to reduce prevalence today, advancing research and development of new tools to achieve elimination in the coming years, and in the interim, ensuring the basic rights and dignity of patients, combatting all forms of stigma and discrimination.”

The Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin – essentially Pope Francis’ second-in-command – was present for Dr. Hotez’s speech. The Cardinal seemed very interested in Dr. Hotez’s speech and reiterated several of his points in his own speech. They shared a vision for how “we can one day eliminate the world’s NTDs as a powerful expression of solidarity with the poor.”