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| Dr. Matshidiso Moeti |
By Matshidiso
Moeti
When I was a child
living in apartheid South Africa, I saw first-hand the pain and
suffering experienced by the patients my parents cared for at their
medical clinic. Patients came in and out, looking for treatment to
their ailments and afflictions. I learned how constant illness and
discomfort was an everyday reality for so many of our neighbours.
Now a physician
myself, I know that daily sickness and pain is also a reality for a
billion people around the world who are affected by neglected
tropical diseases (NTDs). NTDs are a group of preventable and
treatable diseases that place a constant and heavy burden on the
poorest, most marginalized and most isolated communities around the
world. Together they cause more than 150,000 deaths every year
worldwide, yet even that number vastly understates their impact.
By and large, NTDs
are not killer diseases. Instead, over years and decades, they sap
people’s strength, destroy their quality of life and eat away their
savings. For many people who suffer from them, chronic fatigue, bad
vision and persistent discomfort seem to be routine parts of life.
Luckily, treating
and preventing many NTDs is medically simple, and the vast majority
of the drugs needed to do so are generously donated by pharmaceutical
companies – 1.5 billion treatments were donated globally in 2015
alone. But delivering those drugs is harder than it sounds. We need
better information on where people are infected or at risk,
infrastructure to distribute medicine to remote areas and a system to
track progress.
An effort of such
scale demands substantial funding and technical capacity, posing a
major challenge for many African countries. Designing effective
programmes is just half the battle; effective collaboration and
sustainable funding for these programmes are crucial ingredients for
success.
Over the past few
years, we’ve seen increased momentum in the fight against these
debilitating diseases. In 2012, a coalition of representatives from
various sectors endorsed the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical
Diseases, an ambitious plan to control, eliminate or eradicate 10
neglected diseases. In 2014, two dozen African countries pledged to
strengthen their commitment to NTDs under the Addis Ababa Commitment
on NTDs. And in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals made clear
that tackling NTDs was essential to helping communities break free of
poverty.
That’s why the
World Health Organization – together with a coalition of
multinational organizations – is launching the Expanded Special
Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases, or ESPEN.
ESPEN has a broader mandate than its predecessor, the African
Programme for Onchocerciasis (APOC), which closed in December 2015.
APOC focused on one disease; ESPEN focuses on five –
onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis,
soil-transmitted helminths and trachoma – that can be controlled
and eliminated through mass drug administration, the simple and cheap
administration of medicine to all people living in high-risk areas.
To succeed in
helping these millions of people, the fight against NTDs must be led
by affected countries themselves. Much of that work is already taking
place through national NTD programs in partnership with public and
private organizations. To help make these programs effective and
sustainable, ESPEN will support countries each step of the way: it
will support them as they map the burden of these diseases, deliver
treatments accurately and efficiently, monitor progress and secure
certification when they successfully eliminate diseases from within
their borders.
ESPEN will also help
countries work better together and work better with their partners.
ESPEN will support countries to strengthen their strategic leadership
role in convening and coordinating partners support, a must-have for
a successful delivery of interventions and progress towards
elimination. It will create an online portal so countries can access
and share information, and help the range of organizations working on
NTDs to coordinate with one another and streamline their efforts. It
will also advise governments on how to raise money for NTD efforts,
and the best targets for spending it.
This project is
building on an existing global and pan-African movement to combat
NTDs. APOC helped countries make enormous strides against
onchocerciasis (river blindness), achieving a significant reduction
in the number of people affected by this debilitating disease.
ESPEN is an
essential component of a broader health agenda, and the in-country
systems established with its support will outlive NTDs. The recent
tragic Ebola outbreak revealed the need for a stronger WHO, and I
have initiated a Transformation Agenda for the WHO Secretariat in the
African Region to ensure that the Organization evolves to provide
quality support to countries to improve and transform their health
systems in a manner that is sustainable and accelerates the pace of
health development in sub-Saharan Africa.
ESPEN and the
elimination of NTDs are both integral components of this Agenda.
Arming countries with structures to track disease and deliver
services to the most remote corners of society builds stronger health
systems. These systems form the basis of the infrastructure needed to
respond to emergencies and ensure universal access to the entire menu
of primary healthcare services – from childhood immunizations to
reproductive healthcare.
The tools and
knowledge needed to alleviate the neglected suffering of millions of
people are in our hands. I hope countries across Africa and partners
will join with ESPEN to treat those afflicted by NTDs, eliminate the
devastating diseases of poverty that prey on forgotten communities,
and build stronger health systems that deliver for everyone.
Dr Matshidiso
Moeti is the World Health Organization’s Regional Director for
Africa.
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