Twenty NTDs collectively affect over 500 million Africans, yet most NTDs have fe...
Africa Trials
23,873
US Trials
15
Total Africa
23,873
Nations
54
Key Finding
Africa hosts 23,873 trials across 54 nations with extreme geographic concentration.
Regional Comparison
Distribution Analysis
Inequality Profile
Temporal & Structural
Why It Matters
Twenty NTDs collectively affect over 500 million Africans, yet most NTDs have fewer than 10 active trials each, making them the most neglected diseases in the most neglected continent.
The Evidence 128 words · target 156
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of neglected tropical disease trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap? This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov through April 2026. Investigators computed the Jaccard similarity index as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation. Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 15 in the United States, revealing an 15-fold absolute gap in research volume. Shannon entropy of the trial distribution was 2.46 bits, confirming substantial concentration beyond random variation. These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa. Interpretation is limited by the use of a single registry and the absence of non-English trial databases.
Sentence Structure
Question
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of neglected tropical disease trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap?
Dataset
This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.
Method
gov through April 2026.
Primary Result
Investigators computed the Jaccard similarity index as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation.
Robustness
Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 15 in the United States, revealing an 15-fold absolute gap in research volume.
Interpretation
Shannon entropy of the trial distribution was 2.
Boundary
46 bits, confirming substantial concentration beyond random variation.
Extra
These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa.
Extra
Interpretation is limited by the use of a single registry and the absence of non-English trial databases.