A new leishmaniasis vaccine clinical trial is getting underway in India and the United States. Visceral leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease, is one of the world’s most fatal. Next to malaria, it kills more people than any other parasite.

But unlike malaria, which can be treated affordably, curing leishmaniasis costs hundreds of dollars for each infected person, according to the Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute.

The Institute actually developed the vaccine-in-trial with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Leading the trial are Indian drug company Gennova Pharmaceuticals and the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi.

“If the vaccine passes all the tests, producing it in India will make it affordable to all the people who are affected,” said Gennova CEO Sanjay Singh to the United Nations’ Integrated Regional Information Networks.

Leishmaniasis is spread by phlebotomine sandflies. Caused by a parasitic protozoa, it decreases the body's disease-fighting cells, compromising the immune system.

Also known as kala-azar or black fever, leishmaniasis infects about 500,000 people each year, killing 50,0000 mostly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and South Sudan. Of those who die, 70 per cent are children. In total, as many as 200 million people are at risk of contracting leishmaniasis.

One outbreak began in 2009 in South Sudan and has yet to be brought under control. In this country leishmaniasis tends to be most fatal because of poverty and violent conflict. About 25,000 people are affected, mostly in the Jonglei and the Upper Nile states.

“There's food insecurity, there's displacement, many factors. We are expecting that the outbreak may continue,” said Abdi Nasir, head of communicable diseases at the World Health Organisation (WHO).

With HIV co-infections mounting and climate change creating better thriving conditions for the parasite, warnings have been issued by international agencies that leishmaniasis could spread to countries that aren’t usually affected.

According to the WHO's Factsheet No. 290 on progress toward the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there are a billion people suffering from neglected tropical diseases, including lymphatic filariasis, leprosy, dracunculiasis, and others.

While such diseases get their name from the lack of attention that is paid to the development of prevenatitive and curative medicines, not everyone has forgotten about them.

At last month’s Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Ghana’s former president John Kufuor became the network's Special Envoy. At the network's April meeting, he discussed the need for more funding to combat these oft-forgotten illnesses.

“These diseases together, carry a higher health burden than malaria and tuberculosis and are the most common infections of the world’s poor causing blindness, massive swelling in appendages and limbs, serve malnutrition and anaemia,” he said in a statement form his office.

Correction (May 11, 2012): An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that OneWorld Health was leading the trial. While OneWorld Health has developed a treatment for the disease, it is not involved in this trial.