Trends in Parasitology
Update
Research FocusRecent progress in integrated neglected tropical disease control
Research Focus
Section snippets
Integrated control of the neglected tropical diseases through preventive chemotherapy
Policy papers published between 2004 and 2006 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in Berlin* have emphasized several common features about the seven most prevalent neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) of humans – the three soil-transmitted
Progress in Africa
Integrated programs at some level are underway in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Uganda. In October 2006, the Global Network and the George Washington University hosted a two-day conference in Washington, DC, USA to explore the next steps in the scale-up of the NTD control. Participants included several representatives from African Ministries of Health, including Dominique Kyelem (Burkina Faso), Amadou Garba (Niger), John Gyapong (Ghana), Richard Ndyomugyenyi (Uganda) and
Opportunities and challenges
Although we are still in the nascent stages of scaling-up and integrating the control of NTDs, several important new trends and issues have already arisen. As indicated earlier, there might be multiple opportunities for linking NTD control with malaria control 1, 6, 11, 13, 14. There is extensive geographical overlap and co-endemicity among some of the NTDs with falciparum malaria, especially hookworm and schistosomiasis [15], the co-morbidities of which with malaria result in severe anemia.
Future perspective
The integrated control programs that are underway currently will provide a proof-of-concept for NTD integration and yield useful lessons on how to overcome operational challenges. Inherent to the success of integrated in-country NTD control programs is international support and funding. Increased financial support from national governments, the World Bank and philanthropic organizations will be necessary for endemic countries to launch successful, cost-effective control programs. Concurrently,
Conflict of interest statement
Peter Hotez is President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which receives support for activities unrelated to NTD control from Merck & Co., Inc., Wyeth, and GlaxoSmithKline. Peter Hotez is also director of the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and is an inventor on an international patent application (PCT/US02/33106) entitled Hookworm Vaccine. Sophia Raff works for the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative, which is supported by BMGF. David
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Therapeutic efficacy of stable analogues of vasoactive intestinal peptide against pathogens
2014, Journal of Biological ChemistryState of deworming coverage and equity in low-income and middle-income countries using household health surveys: a spatiotemporal cross-sectional study
2019, The Lancet Global HealthCitation Excerpt :They have not disaggregated by wealth and sex, which limits interpretation and development of an equity metric that can be incorporated into programmatic use. Deworming is often stated to be so-called pro-poor given that soil-transmitted helminthiasis and other neglected tropical diseases most commonly affect the poor.2,11,13–16 However, an intervention such as deworming would not be pro-poor if, despite high burden among poor people, empirical evidence finds coverage is concentrated among the wealthy.