Entebbe, Uganda, 30th September 2013 -- The managers of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) programmes from 38 countries in Africa and many partner agencies are meeting in Entebbe, Uganda from 30th September to 04th October 2013 to agree on priorities and coordinate plans and strategies to achieve the WHO 2020 NTD goals in the African region.

The week-long annual meeting focuses on lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trachoma and onchocerciasis. The general objective of the meeting is to strengthen coordination and country alignment to the WHO Roadmap and the 2020 NTD goals, and contribute to accelerating progress toward the elimination of preventive-chemotherapy NTDs in the African Region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Uganda’s Director General of Health Services Dr Jane Ruth Aceng urged countries in Africa to work more on NTD transmission control, morbidity management and intensified disease management. She emphasised that “it is now time for countries and partners to invest heavily in measures such as improved sanitation, provision of adequate and clean water, health education and community sensitisation”. Dr Aceng appealed to donors and partners to consider funding of prevention and morbidity management of NTDs amenable to preventive drug treatments, as well as those that can be best addressed through intensified case management as well as those that can be best addressed through Intensified Case Management such as leishamaniasis, sleeping sickness, rabies and others.

Large scale mapping of NTDs has started in many countries, with many national governments developing integrated multi-year plans to tackle NTDs. Uganda is one of the countries earnestly acting on the World Health Assembly resolution aimed at achieving the WHO 2020 NTD goals. The country is set to launch a comprehensive Multiyear NTD plan on Saturday 05 October.

Highlighting the importance of integration and cost effectiveness in NTD interventions, the WHO Country Representative for Uganda, Dr Wondimagnehu Alemu said, “There is now increasing evidence of the potential benefits of integrated approach to NTD including integrated mapping, mass drug administration, monitoring and evaluation. The efforts at integrated preventive chemotherapy in Uganda have shown us that if well implemented, the integrated approach can result in rapid scaling up and effectively reaching many at risk population, with a broad package of interventions in a short period”.

The WHO NTD Regional Advisor Dr Adiele Nkasiobi Onyeze noted that the “the meeting was not only an opportunity look back and adjust what is not working well but also a chance to look head and plan the implementation of the ambitious yet achievable comprehensive WHO plan that aims to reduce the disease burden by controlling, eliminating and eradicating targeted NTDs in the  African Region”.

With the current global momentum toward the control of NTDs, many partners are seeking to support NTD programmes in African countries to scale up interventions. Thus, the need for strong coordination, collective actions and common goals since NTDs require multiple years of interventions to achieve impact.

As a reminder, the African Regional strategy on NTDs articulates the approach to opera-tionalize the WHO global road map and the recent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on NTDs in the African Region. The WHA resolution aims at achieving the WHO 2020 NTD goals.  During the recently concluded 63rd WHO Regional Committee held in Brazzaville, African Health Ministers adopted the “Regional Strategy on NTDs in the African Region”, and the “Regional Strategic Plan for NTDs in the African Region, 2014-2020” that are aimed at offering firm guidance to countries on NTDs.

The targets of the Strategic Plan by 2020 include the eradication of guinea-worm disease and yaws; sustained elimination of leprosy; the regional elimination of elephantiasis (Lymphatic Fil-ariasis) and blinding trachoma; elimination of river blindness (onchocerciasis) and bilharzia (schistosomiasis) in majority of countries; and the control of Buruli ulcer, intestinal worms, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis (transmitted through the bite of a female sand fly) and rabies.

_________________________________________________________________

Technical contact:

Dr Adiele Nkasiobi Onyeze: onyezea [at] who.int  +242065081044

Media contact:

Benjamin Sensasi: sensasib [at] who.int +256772507906 or cam [at] who.int tel: +47 241 39100