A Call to Support Francophone African Countries to End the Tremendous Suffering from NTDs
Eighteen neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and malaria account together for 22 percent of the total burden of communicable diseases in 25 Francophone African countries (FPACs). The cumulative impact of NTDs decreases the quality of life of househo...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/138591548221198720/A-Call-to-Support-Francophone-African-Countries-to-End-the-Tremendous-Suffering-from-NTDs http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31195 |
| Summary: | Eighteen neglected tropical diseases
(NTDs) and malaria account together for 22 percent of the
total burden of communicable diseases in 25 Francophone
African countries (FPACs). The cumulative impact of NTDs
decreases the quality of life of households, slows economic
growth, and results in millions of dollars in lost economic
productivity annually. Of the 18 NTDs, 5 can be controlled
by preventive chemotherapy (PC) through safe mass drug
administration (MDA). In 2017, the WB launched the deworming
Africa initiative (DAI), with the purpose of raising the
profile of NTDs control and elimination efforts among
endemic Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to eliminate
NTDs as a public health threat. DAI’s strategy seeks to
reduce the burden of NTDs in 3 key population groups that
mostly impact on human capital: young children (12 to 23
months), pregnant women, and school-age children (SAC) (5 to
14 years of age). To achieve this objective in a sustainable
way, DAI supports country efforts to strengthen the
coordinated engagement of the health, education, water,
sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and economic sectors with a
national prevention and control strategy. Multisectoral
collaboration between Ministries of economy, health,
education, and WASH is a promising approach to maximize
national resources towards the long-term sanitary and
financial objectives of reducing NTDs in SSA. |
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