Neglected Infections of Poverty among the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic

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 Arctic, including Canada, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States (Alaska only) [6], although Iceland is also sometimes included. Approximately two million people live north of the Arctic Circle, with 60% living in Arctic Russia [6]. A high percentage of these populations represent aboriginal or indigenous peoples, terms still not well defined because such groups are so often marginalized that there is inadequate data for their numbers and socioeconomic parameters [7]. Arctic aboriginal peoples represent only a small percentage of the estimated 370 million indigenous people globally [7].