Neglected Tropical Diseases: Underfunding Threaten Africa’s Containment Effort
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that chronic underfunding is threatening Africa’s fight to control and eradicate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
Consequently, health officials and donors meeting for the WHO Regional Committee for Africa have called for increased investment to eliminate the illnesses that affect nearly 400 million people in the region.
A survey by WHO Africa’s Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases showed that about 99 million persons in 26 nations are at risk of missing out on treatment for diseases like lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases and schistosomiasis due to insufficient funds for mass drug administration.
NTDs are a set of 20 diseases or disease groups that occurs predominantly in tropical and subtropical areas. They include lymphatic filariasis (more commonly known as elephantiasis), onchocerciasis or river blindness, schistosomiasis or bilharzia and human African trypanosomiasis, often called sleeping sickness, as well as chronic ulcers and other skin infections.
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According to a WHO study on rationale for the continued investment in eradicating NTDs, economic cost of the ailments is high, with household income losses put in the region of $33 billion yearly.
In a statement, yesterday, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, noted that despite the challenges, the continent has made significant progress, adding that leprosy had been eliminated as a public health problem, with only the Comoros yet to achieve the elimination goal in one of its three islands.
She said 42 African nations have been certified free of Guinea worm, even as six others have eliminated trachoma as a public health challenge, while in 2022, Togo became the first African country to eliminate four neglected tropical diseases.
The Global Health Agency observed that NTDs could be devastating, including causing severe pain, disabilities and deformities, malnutrition, stunted growth and cognitive impairment.
Anaemia, caused by some of these diseases, has a direct impact on maternal mortality, it stated.
“The WHO global Neglected Tropical Disease global roadmap 2021-2030 seeks to reduce by 90 per cent the number of people requiring treatment for these diseases and reduce associated disability by 75 per cent. The roadmap, endorsed through the African Regional Framework for the control, eradication and elimination of tropical and vector-borne diseases, encourages governments to provide leadership and commit to the achievement of global and national targets,” the statement added.
