Three years of MDA implementation were observed to have microfilaria prevalence reductions (88.54% to 98.66%) comparable to those of studies that implemented MDA for five to 10 years (≥5 years, 79.23% to 98.26%). Inadequate community understanding of and participation in the LF MDA programme are major drawbacks to its effective implementation. The implementation of MDA that incorporates community participation, incentivisation, education, and training strategies has the potential of increasing MDA coverage and compliance, thereby interrupting parasite transmission and reducing microfilarial prevalence to levels that warrant LF elimination.

This study found that the community has average knowledge and poor participation in MDA against LF and STHIs. Community sensitization is recommended to increase the participation of the community.

After 28 years of treatments with Mectizan® (donated by Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey), the entire Madi-Mid North area, which includes Moyo, has reached a stage where experts suspect that transmission of river blindness is interrupted, a major step toward eventual elimination. . .The decline of river blindness has changed everything, Matalocu said. Crops can be planted near the fast-flowing rivers and streams now; people are healthier and more productive; children can go to school instead of staying home to help blinded family members.

The data reported here show that schistosomiasis and STH are widely distributed around Lake Victoria. In most of the schools where schistosomiasis and STH occurred the transmission thresholds were low. These data are important and need to be taken into consideration when decisions are made on the implementation of the next round of mass chemotherapies for schistosomiasis and STH in Tanzania.

We showed that it is possible to achieve high specificity and sensitivity rates with lower costs by combining serological and NAATs tests, which would assist in the decision-making process for appropriate allocation of public funding aiming to achieve the WHO target of eliminating schistosomiasis as a public health problem by 2030.

The authors detail the design of an innovative and cooperative approach to ground truthing geospatial data through cross-continental YouthMappers coordinated action. This effort provided key geographic information to design control actions and served as a powerful, active tool to disseminate awareness about the importance of neglected tropical diseases in remote regions of the planet in support of SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation.

The National Institute for Medical Research in the United Republic of Tanzania is working together with TDR, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, and other key national and international stakeholders and Access and Delivery Partnership (ADP) partners to address gaps and challenges towards the roll-out of an exciting new paediatric schistosomiasis treatment, arpraziquantel.

Praziquantel has an impact on reducing the prevalence and intensity of urogenital schistosomiasis. However, in the Senegal river basin, S. haematobium remains a real health problem for children living in the villages near the irrigation canals, despite regular treatment, while prevalence is declining from those frequenting the river and the Lac de Guiers.

The present study showed that STHs were common among schoolchildren around Lake Tana. Therefore, education on personal and environmental hygiene should be taken into account to reduce the prevalence of STH infection in the study area.

Our findings provided molecular confirmation of the presence of S. stercoralis and explored the genetic differentiation of S. stercoralis from those infected migrant workers. An effective anti-parasitic drug should be provided for migrant workers and its administration enforced.

This study aims to know the intensity and prevalence of STH infections among mining workers by comparing fecal and nail examinations in Morindino Village, Kambowa District, North Buton Regency Southeast Sulawesi Province

Understanding the needs of people with disabilities, and the barriers they face, is an essential first step towards ensuring they are included in eye health services, including trachoma elimination programmes.

The prevalence of active trachoma is low (1.3%) in the Buyengo sub-county with the following associated factors Unclean face of the child, Not washing the face with soap, not having a latrine, and availability of flies in the child’s face.

The trachoma surveillance system is simple, useful, sensitive, and partially meeting its objectives. However, data quality needs improvement.

Long-term investigations among urban and nonurban populations are discussed and show the need for and effects of continuous surveillance to diminish the burden among vulnerable populations (female sex workers, quilombos and indigenous peoples) and to define new etiological associations of diseases with infections by C. trachomatis.

The Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) is launching a second iteration of the awards in January 2023, the Falcon Awards for Disease Elimination – The Climate Edit – a global initiative which aims to expand the evidence base regarding the intersection of disease elimination and climate. Through the awards, GLIDE will provide catalytic support to researchers to examine new and under-explored areas of the climate and infectious disease nexus.

Mwele Ntuli Malecela: 'She made it her mission to empower ... African women scientists'

The results showed that if educational programs contain a combination of threat and efficiency messages, CL-preventive behaviors in adolescents increase. Providing similar educational content with both game and animation methods indicated that both methods had an almost same effect. Although animation production is more costly, it has the advantage of being used in periods and for other adolescents.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is proud to announce that it has certified the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as free of transmission of Dracunculus medinensis, the parasite that causes dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease).

The 2022 annual meeting of the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD) was held virtually in October 2022. Content on this page captures the key discussion points, knowledge gaps, and recommended next steps identified by the participants from most of the 15 breakout sessions held at that event. 

The results showed that the optimized particle size of 108.2 ± 0.8 nm (NFOH-F1) and 132.4 ± 2.3 nm (NFOH-F2) increased the saturation solubility and dissolution rate of the nanocrystals. These formulations exhibited moderate anti-Leishmania effects (Leishmania amazonensis) in vitro and potent in vitro activity against T. cruzi parasites (Y strain). Moreover, both formulations could reduce parasitemia (around 89–95% during the parasitemic peak) in a short animal model trial (Y strain from T. cruzi). These results suggested that the increased water solubility of the NFOH nanocrystals improved their activity against Chagas disease in both in vitro and in vivo assays.

COVID-19 has shown us that our investments in fighting NTDs not only improve the quality of life of millions of people, they also can have an incredible impact on boosting global health security. 

The Mwele Malecela Mentorship Program for Women in Neglected Tropical Diseases supports mid-career African women to become leaders and champions in NTD elimination. Application deadline: Jan. 15, 2023.

This Compendium of indicators for monitoring and evaluating progress of the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030 complements the companion document to the road map entitled Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress of the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030 (“the M&E framework”).

The WHO Secretariat is leading the follow-up assessment of the four priority dimensions of the heat map through the GAT, a qualitative, participatory device for tracking progress towards the 2030 targets of the road map. This public consultation seeks your perceptions on the status of progress along these four dimensions for all 20 NTDs. Your inputs will be consolidated for consideration by disease-specific focus groups whose deliberations will identify current gaps that pose a persistent risk to the attainment of the road map targets. This will provide qualitative evidence on corrective measures needed to address these gaps and inform reporting on global progress against NTDs to the Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly in 2024.