World Pledges to End Neglected Tropical Diseases By 2030

Clive Tatenda Makumbe

By using the public health system to provide free care through the private sector, more than 80 million people are now protected against eye diseases each year. Combating this disease, which causes much suffering and blindness, is one of the first efforts of the World Bank, in collaboration with the African Union, World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners.

Onchocerciasis, named for the way it is spread by flies that breed near fast-flowing rivers, has been brought under control in many parts of West Africa, allowing families to return to 25 million hectares of arable land.

To feed 17 million people. The virus has now disappeared from many regions, including endemic areas of Senegal and parts of Mali, where vaccines are no longer needed.

Learning from the success of these efforts and using the same technology, the World Bank and many other partners are working to eliminate the top seven temperature and cold diseases (NTDs) that are now preventable by medication: severe blindness, osteoporosis, osteoporosis, and ascariasis. We are working hard on this, whipworms, hookworms and bilharzia) but continue to endanger hundreds of millions of poor people on the African continent.

At the heart of this expansion, effort is strengthening public health systems in endemic countries through national health strategies to provide quality health care to all citizens.

The Washington meeting, organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Office for International Development, the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Global Alliance to End Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF), included: Until the London meeting in January 2012.

At the meeting, the private sector, civil society organizations, development organizations, and health experts agreed to a vision to control or eliminate the world’s top 10 neglected tropical diseases.

The current African Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) Program Trust Fund (APOC) has been managed by the World Bank since 1995 and the work is carried out by WHO.

The APOC Board of Directors, including health ministers from neighboring countries, agreed to extend the lifespan and mission of the Fund until 2025 to help combat all types of neglect and prevent tropical diseases.

At the same time, the African Union is increasing its efforts by creating synergies through the announcement of the MOU also comes in advance of The Kigali Summit on Malaria and NTDs, to be held alongside the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Rwanda next June. At the Summit, Heads of State will launch the Kigali Declaration on NTDs – a high-level, political declaration that aims to mobilize political will and secure commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) target on NTDs and to deliver the targets set out in the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease Roadmap (2021-2030).

“The African Union Commission is committed to the attainment of Aspiration one, Goal three of Agenda 2063; of well-nourished and healthy citizens. We are committed to working in collaboration with partners to progress the elimination of NTDs on the African Continent. We are delighted to be signing this MOU with Uniting to Combat NTDs which will advance advocacy on NTDs. As we have seen, the past two years have been dominated by COVID-19 and other diseases have suffered as a result. It’s good that we are coming together at this time to make progress on these diseases that have not had the attention they deserve,” reiterated H.E. Minata Samate Cessouma, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian ‎Affairs ‎and Social Development, AU Commission.

“We have seen how the delivery of essential health services has been impacted by COVID-19, this MOU couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. The new MOU will advance the implementation of the Continental Framework on NTDs and the Common Africa Position, with a strong focus on increased country leadership and ownership of national NTD programmes, matched by increased allocation of domestic resources,” emphasized Thoko Elphick-Pooley, Executive Director, Uniting to Combat NTDs said. The Common Africa Position on NTDs will be adopted by the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Health, Population and Drug Control at the end of May, paving the way for it to be endorsed by Heads of State at the African Union Summit in 2023.