Some of the poorest countries in Africa are set to wipe out the most common diseases of poverty within the next few years.

A review of 49 African countries’ progress in fighting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) shows that some of the continent’s poorest countries, such as eSwatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Malawi and Mali are outperforming some richer countries such as Botswana and South Africa.

The analysis, by the organisation United to Combat NTDs, looked at the five most common NTDs in Africa: blinding trachoma, the leading cause of infectious blindness; intestinal worms that can stunt the growth of children; mosquito-borne elephantiasis; snail-borne bilharzia and river blindness.

All of the diseases can be prevented or treated with medicines that are donated for free by pharmaceutical companies.

The diseases affect 1.6 billion of the poorest people in the world, including more than 600m people in Africa.