Efforts to produce vaccines against SARS and MERS were prematurely halted since their scope was perceived to be geographically restricted and they were subsequently categorized as neglected diseases. However, when a similar virus spread globally triggering the COVID-19 pandemic, we were harshly reminded that several other neglected diseases might also be waiting for the perfect opportunity to become mainstream. As climate change drives urbanization, natural selection of pathogens and their intermediate vectors and reservoirs, the risk of neglected diseases emerging within a larger susceptible pool becomes an even greater threat.

Availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely considered the only way to end this pandemic. Similarly, vaccines are also seen as the best tools available to control the spread of neglected (sometimes referred to as emerging or re-emerging) diseases, until the water, hygiene and sanitation infrastructure is improved in areas of their prevalence. Vaccine production is usually cost and labour intensive and thus minimal funding is directed towards controlling and eliminating neglected diseases (NDs). A customised but sustainable approach is needed to develop and deploy vaccines against NDs. While safety, efficacy and public trust are the three main success pillars for most vaccines, affordability is vital when formulating vaccines for neglected diseases.

由于认为SARS和MERS疫苗的范围受到地理限制，因此过早停止了生产这些疫苗的努力，随后将它们归类为被忽视的疾病。但是，当类似病毒在全球蔓延引发COVID-19大流行时，我们被强烈提醒我们，其他几种被忽视的疾病也可能在等待成为主流的绝佳机会。随着气候变化推动城市化，病原体及其中间媒介和水库的自然选择，在更大的易感人群中出现被忽视疾病的风险变得更大。

广泛认为，提供用于COVID-19的疫苗是结束这种大流行的唯一方法。同样，疫苗也被视为控制被忽视的疾病（有时被称为新兴疾病或再出现疾病）传播的最佳工具，直到水，卫生和卫生基础设施在其流行地区得到改善。疫苗生产通常是成本和劳动密集型的，因此最少的资金用于控制和消除被忽视的疾病（ND）。需要一种定制的但可持续的方法来开发和部署针对ND的疫苗。尽管安全性，功效和公众信任是大多数疫苗成功的三大要素，但在为被忽视疾病配制疫苗时，可负担性至关重要。