By Samwel Doe Ouma @samweldoe
For African countries to end Neglected Tropical Diseases by 2030, bold commitments,
country and community ownership of the elimination programs and multisectoral
collaborations will be required in order to attain the elimination goals, neglected tropical
diseases (NTDs) experts said in Nairobi.
According to several experts who spoke during the three-day End fund global learning
summit held in Nairobi, several challenges still exist in the journey to eliminate NTDs
such as poor integration and coordination of various programs working within NTDs
arena, insufficient and unstable funding, climate change and emerging threats such as
covid-19.
Speaking at the event Dr Dereje Duguma, state minister Ethiopia, one health
collaboration is required in agriculture, environment, health and water, sanitation and
hygiene sphere as well as owning the programs through countries domestic financing to
ensure uninterrupted running of the programs.
“Philanthropists, the private sector, NGOs, and governments must work collaboratively
to address NTDs crises and African governments must ensure that more sustainable
efforts are pursued to NTDs elimination across the continent,” he said
He added that “Countries must be self-reliant or strive to become so to end NTDs, as
we are grateful for external support Africa must find solutions to its problems.”
Dr Sultan Matendechero, head Kenya public health institute said that countries must
bear the vision of ending NTDs by contributing significantly towards elimination of these
diseases.
“For sustainability of elimination programs countries must not over rely on donor support
and should quantify their inputs in these activities, Kenya is already contributing towards
this course but haven’t quantified their input, he said adding that, “Countries should take
charge of elimination agenda.”
Dr Matendechero reiterated that domestic financing must be explored and increased as
alternative funding mechanisms for achieving NTDs elimination goals.
“We must own our elimination initiatives,” Dr Sultani said adding that “as long as we
don’t embrace domestic financing, we will not meet our targets being cognizant of the
fact that these targets can be met only with adequate funding from donors’
philanthropists as well as domestic financing that will help in strengthening health
systems that can successfully prevent, detect and treat NTDs.”
The Nairobi conference convened by END Fund was attended by more than 250
participants among them government officials, scientists, researchers, academia and
project managers deliberated on integration within and across sectors, collaborations,
connections, co-creation and community involvement towards reaching neglected
tropical disease elimination by 2030.
The END Fund – the largest philanthropic organization dedicated to ending five of the
most common NTDs – hosted the learning and collaborations convention on May 30th
to June 1st in Nairobi to discuss how African leaders can collaborate to respond to the
need of the continent to eliminate NTDs by 2030.
NTDs are a diverse set of 20 diseases and disease groups such as lymphatic filariasis,
trachoma, human African trypanosomiasis, leprosy, and many others- with a singular
commonality: their impact on impoverished communities.
They are called neglected because they have been largely wiped out in other parts of
more developed world but persist only in the poorest, most marginalized communities
and conflict areas.
Social stigma is a major consequence of NTDs and in addition to causing physical and
emotional suffering, these devastating diseases hamper a person’s ability to work, keep
children out of school and prevent families and communities from thriving.
Together they affect more than a billion people worldwide and approximately 25 million
Kenyans with devastating health, social and economic consequences.
Kenya is one of several countries across the world experiencing NTDs like
leishmaniasis, chikungunya, dengue and other hemorrhagic viruses.
According to Dr Carol Karutu, Vice president, Programs the END Fund, for African
countries to meet elimination goals strong national health systems and country
ownership of the programs will be critical to ensure progress towards NTD control and
elimination.
“Elimination of NTDs will require both country and community ownership since it will not
only accelerate but also sustain the progress made so far over the past decade,” Dr
Karutu told reporters.
Addressing delegates on health systems and people centered approaches, Prof Daniel
Boakye, senior technical advisor programs, End fund, said that community advocacy in
elimination targets is lacking.
He called for community involvement to drive implementation models saying that “there
is a need to involve local villagers and community members to manage education and
prevention efforts,” adding that “most of the advocacy are done around funding.”
Dr Sammy Njenga, Senior research scientists Kenya research organization (Kemri)
challenged countries to invest in laboratories that will support surveillance and catalyze
sustainability.
He added that communities must be involved in this journey saying that “they are likely
to support introduction of innovative drugs and treatments when benefits of change are
explained to them.”
With the increasing trade and interaction among individuals and communities living
along national boundaries has seen the risk of cross-border transmission of infection of
NTDs in region.
The experts also called for cross-border partnerships in mitigating the risk of cross-
border transmission, mobilization of resources to strengthen and sustain on-going
efforts to control and eliminate the NTDs.
Kenya ministry of health permanent secretary Susan Mochache said that Kenya has
allocated Shs 24 billion to fund elimination goals, pledging that Kenya is firmly
committed to the WHO’s new roadmap for neglected tropical diseases 2021-2030.
Wycliff Omondi, head, Kenya ministry of Health, division of Vector Borne and Neglected
Diseases, besides developing NTD national plan, Kenya has been certified free of
guinea worm and has achieved interruption of transmission for African trypanosomiasis
(sleeping sickness) and onchocerciasis (river blindness).
So far, 45 countries have eliminated at least one NTD. Of the five countries that have
eliminated an NTD in 2022, four are African.
Kenya has been certified guinea worm free by the World Health Organization, other
countries to get certification includes Togo which has eliminated Trachoma and, Benin,
Uganda and Rwanda which have eliminated human African trypanosomiasis.
Kenya is on its way to eliminate Elephantiasis caused by Lymphatic Filariasis (LF).LF is
a mosquito-borne NTD and found mainly in coastal regions of Kenya along the Indian
Ocean.
