By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, July 2 (Reuters Life!) - Illnesses like AIDS and cancer never want for celebrity attention, but actress Alyssa Milano hopes to shed light on a deadly class of diseases so obscure they are deemed neglected by world health experts.

Milano, 34, best known for her TV role as a modern-day witch on "Charmed," was recently named "founding ambassador" of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control, a group based at the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, D.C.

The project is devoted to battling a little-known but widespread family of 13 chronic bacterial and parasitic infections that cause horrific disfigurement, stigmatization and death in the poorest regions of the developing world.

These so-called neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, include hookworm infection, river blindness, elephantiasis and schistosomiasis (snail fever) and afflict an estimated 1 billion people but are preventable.

Milano has pledged $250,000 over five years to the cause with her first-year donation earmarked for a program to eradicate elephantiasis in Myanmar, funding the purchase of 12 million tablets to treat 4 million individuals.

Milano, who has traveled the world extensively as a UNICEF ambassador of goodwill, discussed her new role with Reuters in a recent telephone interview:

Q: What is the objective of this project and your role?

A: "Our mission, and my mission, is to educate and empower the media and the public on neglected tropical diseases so that we can eradicate these silent killers."

A: Why are these diseases so devastating?

Q: "Not only do they kill, but they blind, disable, disfigure and basically they keep individuals and communities in an unending cycle of poverty. ... If we are serious about eradicating poverty and malnutrition, the foundation of all that is treating these diseases."

Q: What about NTDs did you find striking enough to make this kind of commitment.

A: "In all my travels to developing nations ... I had never heard of these illnesses. And that was shocking to me. In 10 years of humanitarian efforts, how is it possible that something that can affect over a billion people, how is it possible that these illnesses are going virtually unnoticed? And I thought it was a real opportunity for me to use my voice to ... bring this issue to people's consciousness."

Q: How did you learn about NTDs?

A: "Dr. Peter Hotez (the head of the Sabin Vaccine Institute) brought this epidemic to my attention in 2006. He and I met at the Clinton Global Initiative, and I was completely overwhelmed by his passion and dedication in the eradication of these diseases."

Q: About how much does it cost to treat populations that are vulnerable to these diseases.

A: "It's 50 cents per person per year to treat neglected tropical diseases through medication. So at $2.50 over five years to treat one person, you know, a cup of Starbucks coffee is more expensive than that."

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