In a period of reduced international travel due to COVID19, MSF challenged medical illustrator Todd Buck to create six high quality custom medical and scientific illustrations that depict some of the most life-threatening and neglected tropical diseases that MSF treats.
MSF has been providing direct care to patients with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) for more than thirty years, with a focus on the most deadly and overlooked diseases in this group of illnesses. In that time, hundreds of thousands of patients have been treated who otherwise may not have survived. Many had life-threatening parasitic infections such as kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis or VL), Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) or sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis). Some were affected by noma, a deadly bacterial disease so neglected that it is not yet recognised as an NTD. Others were the victims of snakebite envenoming, the medical condition resulting from a snakebite, which causes more death and disability than any other NTD.
Todd Buck is a fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) in the United States, has served on its Board of Governors. He is a Board Certified Medical Illustrator (CMI) and Professor of Illustration at Northern Illinois University School of Art & Design.