The so-termed neglected diseases, that is to say diseases that have been forgotten about, are all those pathologies which have been weakened or have now disappeared from the developed world but which still continue to cause thousands of victims amongst the poorest and vulnerable populations of Asia, Africa and South America.

Remote rural areas, areas of armed conflict and shantytowns, in particular, are afflicted by these diseases. A sixth of the inhabitants of the earth and another two billion individuals are at risk. We are dealing here with a group of thirteen parasite or bacterial inflections, amongst which are to be listed leprosy, trachoma and dengue fever

On Sunday 20 October the Order of the Ministers of the Sick are organising in Rome a march of solidarity ‘Journeying with St. Camillus’, a walk in the footsteps of St. Camillus that is open to everyone. After the celebration at 9.30 of a Holy Mass by Fr. Augusto Chendi M.I., the Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care), at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campo Marzio (Piazza della Maddalena), the march will leave from Piazza del Pantheon to reach St. Peter’s Square and thus take part in the saying of the Angelus and receive the blessing of Pope Francis.

The route that has been chosen has a strongly symbolic value given that most of it was followed by St. Camillus himself to go from the generalate house of his Order to the Hospital of St. James where every day he provided service and care to the patients. In following in the footsteps of the patron saint of the sick we will try to break the wall of silence and indifference that surrounds neglected diseases.

To begin the walk on 19 October will be the international symposium on ‘The Challenges of Neglected Diseases’, which will start at 15.30 in the chapter hall of the generalate house of the Camillians in Piazza della Maddalena.  Epidemiological doctors, heads of health-care policies, and the directors of pharmaceutical companies, as well as experts in pastoral care in health, will take part in the symposium. At the end there will be a celebration of the Eucharist presided over by H.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral care).

The aim of the symposium is to give a voice to those who, forgotten about by the mass media, still today see their existences threatened because of the indifference of the industrialised world, avoiding facile forms of humiliating paternalism but going to the heart of the complex subject-matter of neglected diseases in order to establish future strategies and meet the challenges that these diseases pose to the world health-care system.

In 2010 Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared ‘neglected diseases can be brought to their knees’ and established a time by which this could be achieved – 2015.

The march of solidarity ‘Journeying with St. Camillus’ and the international symposium on ‘The Challenges of Neglected Diseases’ have been organised by the Order of the Ministers of the Sick within the framework of the celebrations for the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis, in cooperation with the Montefortian Cultural Association Science-Health-Society, with the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Health Workers (for Health Pastoral Care) and the National Office for Education, Schools and Universities of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.

The programme of the march of solidarity ‘Journeying with St. Camillus’

The programme of the international symposium ‘The Challenges of Neglected Diseases’