Noma (cancrum oris) is a gangrenous disease which destroys the soft and hard facial tissues. It predominantly affects children aged 2-6 years living in extreme poverty. With a high mortality rate of up to 90 per cent, noma leaves survivors with significant aesthetic and functional sequelae, suffering intense social isolation, stigmatisation and discrimination. 

In an effort to achieve greater understanding of noma and engender action to prevent, detect and treat this disease and redress the associated human rights violations, the Noma Project seeks to: 

• Establish noma’s epidemiology & global burden,

• Portray the realities & lived experiences of child and adult noma survivors, and

• Evaluate the implications of the framing of noma as a human rights issue & neglected tropical disease.

Led by the the Global Health Institute of the University of Geneva, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel and the York Law School & Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, our project team relies on close partnerships & collaborations with non-, inter- and governmental key stakeholders. Together we aim to generate academic and social impact at local and national levels, as well as at international level through the inclusion of noma in the World Health Organisation list of Neglected Tropical Diseases.