The World Health Organization (WHO) reports unprecedented progress against 17 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), thanks to a new global strategy, a regular supply of quality, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners.
The report, "Sustaining the drive to overcome the global impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases", reveals that new momentum has shifted the world closer to the elimination of many of these conditions that take their greatest toll amongst the poor.
The publication which charts progress in controlling, eliminating and eradicating NTDs, was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday.
It said two NTDs were targeted for global eradication: dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease) in 2015 and yaws in 2020, outlining targets set for the elimination of five other diseases in 2015 and a further 10 targets for nine diseases in 2020, either globally or in selected geographical areas.
The report said donation of medicines and funding through an alignment of international partners had helped fast-track actions and initiatives that were now having a measurable impact in affected countries with considerable scale-up of preventive chemotherapy interventions.
It noted that this involved the widespread delivery of safe, single-dose, quality-assured medicines as preventive treatment against five anthelminthic (worm) diseases and trachoma (chlamydial infection).
It said in 2010 alone, 711 million people received treatment for at least one of four diseases, namely lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases) targeted for preventive chemotherapy, which involved the widespread delivery of safe, single-dose, quality-assured medicines as preventive treatment.
Over the next five years, WHO projects that treatment for schistosomiasis (bilharzia) will reach 235 million people; which would be achieved by increasing availability of medicines by using donated medicines and improved distribution at country level, the report indicated.
The report held that the eradication of guinea worm is in sight, that rabies had been eliminated in several countries, with WHO eyeing regional elimination of that disease by 2020.
It said a new strategy which involved the early detection and use of antibiotics to treat Buruli ulcer had drastically reduced suffering and disability from this chronic and debilitating skin condition, and that an evaluation of WHO's new strategy aimed at eradicating yaws by 2020, using a new oral antibiotic treatment designed to replace those developed in the 1950s.
It held that in 2012, dengue ranked as the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease, with an epidemic potential in the world, and registering a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past 50 years.
The report emphasised that the world needed to change its reactive approach and implement sustainable preventive measures.
While defining the concepts of elimination and eradication, the report also analyzed some challenges that remained at country level. It emphasized the need for national disease control programmes to improve coordination and integration.
It further highlighted the need to strengthen human resources and to work with other sectors such as education, agriculture and veterinary public health in disease control programmes.