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Stakeholders meet on neglected
tropical diseases
Accra, Feb. 6, GNA - Ministry of Health and Ghana Health
Service with support from the United States Information
Development would for the next two years fight five of the
ancient neglected tropical diseases that have burdened
humanity for centuries.
The programme would cover all the 26 endemic districts in
the Northern and Upper West Regions where pockets of
trachoma could be identified, as well as 61 districts in
eight regions where Lymphatic Filariasis (Elephantiasis)
could be found, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa,
Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said on
Tuesday.
Five of the ancient neglected tropical diseases – Trachoma;
Lymphatic Filariasisl; Onchocerciasis; Schistosomiasis and
intestinal worms - are associated with poverty and poor
environment.
Opening a three-day stakeholders meeting on Strategic
Planning on Neglected Tropical Disease Programme in Accra,
Prof. Akosa said the link of these diseases with poverty was
so strong that their prevalence could serve as proxy
indicator of the level of a country's socioeconomic
development.
He noted that the effect of these diseases had a great
burden on home care; low school enrolment; low agricultural
productivity; inefficient land use and food insecurity.
Prof. Akosa, therefore, called on Politicians to realise
their role in eliminating the five ancient diseases and
afflictions since the fight against these neglected diseases
could be better achieved in a combined effort.
He explained that as Ghana was moving towards a total
decentralized State, there was the need to disabuse the
minds of District Chief Executives, Assembly Members and
Members of Parliament on the use of money for development in
their areas.
"They should contribute part of their share of the District
Assemblies' Common Fund to fight the diseases in their areas
so that their people will enjoy good health and appreciate
their efforts more for more of them live in the rural
areas."
At least one billion people worldwide currently suffer from
one or more of these diseases and more than 40 million
people are permanently incapacitated and disfigured by
lymphatic filariasis alone.
In Africa alone, about 30 million people with
schistosomiasis suffer permanent and life threatening
complications.
Prof. John Gyapong, Director of the Health Research Unit of
the Ghana Health Service, noted that at the national level,
the diseases were hidden in remote areas and were poorly
documented for prioritization and health interventions.
They were kept away due to stigma; lack of visibility at the
international level and neglect by research and development,
he said.
He noted that research had shown that safe and effective
drugs were available for their cure.
"The research has also shown that some of these drugs bring
added benefits such as nutritional status and micronutrient
uptake. The benefits support the very foundations of better
health status in impoverished populations."
Prof. Gyapong commended the stakeholders for coming together
to combat these diseases and to reduce the levels of
transmission.
"A sense of corporate social responsibility on the part of
industry and governments can be harnessed to make essential
interventions accessible to populations."
Prof. Alan Fenwick of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
of the St. Mary's University, London, who gave the global
overview, noted that safe and effective drugs existed but
were not affordable to those who needed them or governments
of poor countries.
He said six pharmaceutical companies had agreed to
contribute to supply the drugs and said 250 million dollars
would be needed yearly to deliver these drugs to people and
countries that needed them.
Prof. Fenwick called for collaboration between countries on
disease programmes; training of distributors for multiple
interventions; country specific solutions and monitoring of
events.
Other supporters include Department for International
Development of the UK; World Health Organisation; World Bank
and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
GNA
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