Supporting the Diagnostics Agenda

Accurate and reliable diagnostic tools are a requirement for neglected tropical disease (NTD) programs and to reach the 2030 NTD roadmap targets. For many NTDs, diagnostic tests are required to support programmatic decisions on changing treatment frequency or stopping mass treatment, and decisions regarding surveillance and validating or verifying elimination. To address this need, the NTD Department at WHO has developed a Diagnostic Technical Advisory group that is charged with reviewing the diagnostic landscape, developing detailed target product profiles to describe the diagnostic tools needed to achieve program targets and to work with WHO to advocate for resources to develop these tools. COR-NTD, as a coalition and through the secretariat, is committed to tackling these challenges. 

For example:

The COR-NTD Secretariat provides administrative and logistic support for the WHO DTAG to organize meetings of the DTAG subgroups, share meeting outputs with WHO and to engage the NTD community in reviewing draft target product profiles. 

COR-NTD’s research portfolio includes a number of projects funded to identify new biomarkers and develop new test prototypes. 

With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), COR-NTD issued a request for proposals to support development of improved diagnostic tools and methods, with an initial focus on lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.  Future RFPs will diversify this support. 

COR-NTD, in collaboration with the DTAG and other partners, is supporting a diagnostics landscaping activity to map available diagnostics across the NTD portfolio. COR-NTD is working with WHO, the DTAG and donors to support biobanking, the development of specimen repositories to facilitate diagnostics development. 

The goal of all of these efforts is to address the challenges that may impede progress towards achieving the 2030 Roadmap targets. COR-NTD and other stakeholders are actively working to drive resources and technical support towards the identified gaps.

 

Diagnostic Resources

News

the oncho team

Scientists from seven African countries train to use next-gen river blindness diagnostic tool

Onchocerciasis (oncho), commonly known as river blindness, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that, according to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study, has caused vision loss for an estimated 1.15 million people – nearly all of them in Africa. 

 

A new tool and protocol for testing for oncho developed at Smith College and University Hospital Bonn, funded through the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Task Force for Global Health with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), promises more accurate and cost-effective testing for the disease. When widely deployed, the improved test will help scientists and health workers to better-target expensive treatments, while allowing resource-constrained health systems to spend more efficiently.